THEATRE NOTES Great Singing Lifts Faust at Opera San Jose
Laughter at Pintello Comedy and Bus Barn Theaters by Paul Myrvold
Opera San Jose FAUST
I
t is a well-known story. Faust an aging scholar, frustrated by his waning powers, his failure to
unlock the secrets of the universe and his impossible yearning for youth and love fixes on suicide. Satan’s minion, Méphistophélès, tempts him to trade an eternity in hell for an unspecified time of youth- ful beauty and pleasure. With the demon’s help Faust seduces the love- ly Marguerite whom he abandons pregnant and forlorn only to return to her just before she is to hang for infanticide. She dies and is escorted to heaven by angels and he either repents and joins her or burns in eternal damnation, depending on which of the myriad versions is before one. At the end of Opera San Jose’s at
times confusing production of Charles Gounod’s Faust, Méphistophélès and his minions throttle the lovers who then rise and ascend toward heaven led by the extra-textual spirit of Marguerite’s dead sister (played by the lovely pre- teen supernumerary Jessiga Sigurdardottir) as the demon gnash- es his teeth. In the translation of the libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré that I consulted, Faust gets dragged down hell. The libretto as written is frankly
confusing and some of this produc- tion’s directorial flourishes add to the
MEPHISTOPHELES (BRANCH FIELDS) APPEARS TO THE OLD SCHOLAR (ALEXANDER BOYER AS FAUST) IN OPERA SAN JOSÉ’S PRODUCTION OF GOUNOD’S FAUST.
ALEXANDER BOYER AS THE OLD SCHOLAR WHO SELLS HIS SOUL IN OPERA SAN JOSÉ’S PRODUCTION OF GOUNOD’S FAUST.
PHOTOS BY P. KIRK.
fog. For example, the first act starts out well, but sows the seeds of puz- zlement when Méphistophélès tempts Faust with a vision of the beautiful Marguerite walking in a funeral pro- cession ahead of a small coffin. A lit- tle later we learn from Marguerite’s brother that their mother has died. But the coffin was child sized. So
~ continued on page 24 Out & About • May 2012 23
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