In Performance: A Concert Faust
Web-only review:
by Joe Banno
Gounod's "Faust" was once a fixture in the repertoire of the world's great opera houses, but is less frequently encountered today. Opera Camerata of Washington performed a heavily abridged, concert version of "Faust" at the French Embassy on Saturday, conjuring the old-school pleasures of the French vocal tradition in an idiomatic, often thrilling reading. With a generally solid pickup orchestra and a lustily enthusiastic chorus providing support, conductor Gregory Buchalter led a red-blooded, perceptively shaped account of the score.
(read more after the jump)
Soprano Joyce El-Khoury's Marguerite and mezzo Magdalena Wór's Siebel provided the evening's greatest vocal joys -- Wór with her elegant phrasing and the lustrous shimmer of her upper register, and El-Khoury with the mix of richness and vibrancy in her timbre, and the affecting emotional immediacy of her singing. That's not to take anything away from the Faust of Mark Schowalter -- a tenor in the true French tradition, marrying lyrical tone with ample carrying power and delivering high notes with a sweet, tightly focused sound -- or the Mephistopheles of bass Duncan Hartman, whose voice was smaller-scaled than the others but sonorous and full of wry insinuation.
The incorrect start time I received for the concert meant a late arrival - all the more regrettable given that the significant role of Valentin had been drastically reduced to a single aria, early in the evening, and I consequently missed the opportunity to hear baritone Jose Sacin - a singer well-reviewed in these pages in the past.
-- Joe Banno
By
Anne Midgette
|
June 16, 2009; 6:00 AM ET
Categories:
local reviews
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Posted by: geddaisgod | June 17, 2009 5:32 PM | Report abuse
Nice spirit, but you're addressing the wrong critic; this review was by Joe Banno.
Posted by: MidgetteA | June 18, 2009 9:49 PM | Report abuse
...and edited by?....
...the critic who wrote it (Mr. Banno) and the editor who posted it (chi sa) should both know better than to use a strawman as an intro to a review....
Posted by: geddaisgod | June 21, 2009 12:30 AM | Report abuse
The comments to this entry are closed.
Faust is "less frequently encountered today"?
What are you talking about, Midgette? Since just last year through this upcoming season, the following houses have performed or will perform Faust:
Berlin UDL
Berlin DO
Bilbao
Bucharest
Bonn
Chicago Lyric
Dresden
La Scala
Orange (Fest.)
Paris Bastille
San Francisco
Toulouse
Valencia
Vienna SO
...and that's only a few of them. Just because it hasn't been put on at WNO doesn't mean it's "infrequently" performed. Do some research, the internet is your friend!