Faust
Went to see Faust before-yesterday with my dad. In the name of figuring out what my dealy-yo is with opera, I bought myself a couple of tix for Live in HD events. I`ve got to say, I think this Live in HD initiative is friggin' amazing. You go to a local theater, and they have live feeds from events happening all around the world (like the MET Opera.) They only show a single performance (sometimes 2) as it clearly requires additional coordination; a patron seeing it at the venue proper is using his own eyes to see, and can adjust his attention based on where the directors want it to be. When one is constrained to a 2D viewing screen, the directors need to jump through additional hoops to zoom in where appropriate and more or less simulate the feeling of being there, seeing the action unfurl and looking about as organically as possible. I`m sure they also see it as a new and interesting mean of expressing their art, but shit costs money regardless.
I was...underwhelmed by Faust, though I think that that's all Gounod's fault (and not the director's, the singers' or the musicians'.) I found the story super-disjointed and molded to suit the required themes of the narrative. Why does Faust ditch Marguerite? Why does Marguerite forgive him with little to no context? Why is Marguerite made to suffer so much for reasons not of her own? (I mean, the girl is almost raped by any real definition of the term and is at a minimum heavily coerced) It's like reading Justine by de Sade. And why oh WHY is she absolved of the sins of infanticide and what I essentially consider suicide, in the name of spiting the Devil? How does make the sense? It doesn't make any of it!
Embarassingly, the only real symbolism I found was the relatively heavyhanded but oh so awesome to watch reframing of the story as a discussion of the uses and absues of science during WWII. Presenting the angels as scientists and abominations and weapons (like what I think was supposed to be an atomic bomb) as satanic instruments was pretty interesting. I spent a lot of time wondering why the shit science was being represented on both sides of the equation... was it just an overall thematic, the way that a science-themed chess set would have random science stuff used on both sides of the board?
I left there thinking that it might be an attempt to separate man's creations from man himself. A scientist can only redeem him or herself from having created such atrocities by imputing them with an evilness of their own! It's a kind of negation of agency, which is interesting when you look at way Mephistopheles, having been called by Faust, abuses Marguerite. Faust is the scientist who, wanting to kill himself for his role in the atomic bomb, ends up repeating the cycle (for the same reasons, even! Fame and fortune!) again, wasting his youth all over again!
Of course, the cycle is then broken pretty explicitly by what I can only describe as a pretty ridiculous looking Deus Ex Machina... but sure, whatever.
The piece had some fantastic moments. The choruses were quite lively, the romantic songs and duets were pretty sexy and the tenor had a beautiful and resonant voice. Mephistopheles stole the friggin' show, and his showdown with the choir of angels was one of my favourite parts, for sure!! Seeing the devil sporting a goatee and striped pants taking on a choir of scientist-angels in a church was probably the most epic thing I've seen since mid-November. I'll take it!!!
M