That Damned Faust! Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust

From the Metropolitan Opera's production of Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust

 

* The Metropolitan Opera’s dazzling new production of Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust - $4.99 for 72 hours

 

 

* Director Peter Stein’s acclaimed German-language production of Goethe’s Faust  

 

 

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FUN FAUST FACTS!

 

 

• For at least 500 years Mephistopheles has been everybody’s favorite devil - eager to exchange knowledge, and presumably the riches that come from it, for one’s soul. And to judge by the actions of literature’s Dr. Faust and others like him, the allure of this devil, and his offer, have held strong for centuries; it appears that humanity remains in some doubt about the relative value of its own soul.

 

• The character of Faust may have been inspired by one Dr. Johann Georg Faust (1480 - 1540), who obtained a degree in divinity from Heidelberg University in 1509. This was a time, remember, when alchemy and magic were not as clearly separate from science and religious faith as they would later become. The historical Dr. Faust may have investigated all disciplines with equal fervor - to the dismay, at least, of religious authorities.

 

 

From the Met's Faust

 

• The name Faust derives from the word for “lucky” in Latin.

 

faustitas -atis f. - prosperity

 

faustus -a -um - favorable , lucky, auspicious; adv. fauste

 

• The tales of Faust and Mephistopheles were meant to illustrate Christian values and doctrine.

 

• "The Faust of early books - as well as the ballads, dramas and puppet-plays which grew out of them - is irrevocably damned because he prefers human to divine knowledge; "He laid the Holy Scriptures behind the door and under the bench, refused to be called doctor of Theology, but preferred to be styled doctor of Medicine. Plays and comic puppet theatre loosely based on this legend were popular throughout Germany in the 16th century, often reducing Faust to a figure of vulgar fun." - Wikipedia

 

• The English playwright Christopher Marlowe (1564 – 1593) and German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 – 1832) created the most thoughtfully crafted versions of the Faust tale, in their great plays of that name.

 

 

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From the Met's Faust

 

CLASSICAL TV PRESENTS

 

• The Metropolitan Opera production of Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust - $4.99 for 72 hours

 

La Damnation de Faust is a work for orchestra, voices, and chorus written by Hector Berlioz (1803-1869), an oratorio- or cantata-like work that the composer called a "légende dramatique."  The text was by Berlioz and Almire Gandonnière, based on Gerard de Nerval's French version of Goethe's play.

 

“Conducted by James Levine, Robert Lepage’s stunning production - with its brilliant marriage of art and technology - thrilled HD audiences around the world. In Berlioz’s rarely performed vision of the immortal Faust legend, Marcello Giordani is a fiery title hero whose impulsive bargain with Méphistophélès (a commanding John Relyea) proves fatal. Susan Graham is a lovely and tragic Marguerite, the woman who gives everything to the man she loves. This production was reconceived for the Metropolitan Opera and is based on a co-production of the Saito Kinen Festival and the Opéra National de Paris.” - The Metropolitan Opera

 

• Goethe’s Faust, directed by Peter Stein - A German-language film of the great play, in seven parts plus a German documentary on the making of Faust - FREE

 

German theater and opera director Peter Stein's staging of Goethe's Faust considered to be one of the greatest works of German literature. This 2000 production was staged by Peter Stein and recorded for television at the Berlin Arena. (In German, with no subtitles.)

 

• Faust I - Part 1 - FREE

 

• Faust I - Part 2 - FREE

 

• Faust II - Act 1 - FREE

 

• Faust II - Act 2 - FREE

 

• Faust II - Act 3 - FREE

 

• Faust II - Act 4 - FREE

 

• Faust II - Act 5 - FREE

 

• DOCUMENTARY: Goethe: Faust - The Marathon - FREE

 

From the auditions held to cast young actors in a multiplicity of supporting roles, through ten months of preparations, up to the last-minute flurry of activity before the opening night, this documentary observes Peter Stein's historic undertaking to stage the unabridged version of Goethe's Faust. (In German.)

 

• Robert Schumann: Scenes from Faust - FREE

 

Thousand and nine was the 260th anniversary of Goethe's birth and the Bad Urach Autumn Festival celebrated this event by presenting a concert of scenes from his masterpiece Faust, set to music by Robert Schumann.

 

Recorded live in the 500-year-old Amanduskirche, this concert features soloists Michaela Kaune, Regina Klepper, Mihoko Fujimura, Christa Meyer, Susanne Krumbiegel, Jonas Kaufmann, Detlev Roth, and Franz Hawlata. F rieder Bernius conducts.

 

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MAY WE SUGGEST

 

If you like Berlioz, you may enjoy:

 

• Gluck's Orphee et Euridice, from the Theatre du Chatelet  FREE

 

John Eliot Gardiner chose to use Berlioz's 1859 revision of Orphee, which adapted the tenor role of Gluck's 1774 score for the contralto voice of Pauline Viardot, adjusting the register for a mezzo-soprano. Underlining his preference for this version, Gardiner performed the opera with the nineteenth-century period instruments of his Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique.