Royal Opera’s Faust succeeds thanks to super singing, stunning sets and Mandy Fredrich’s Marguerite

Faust

Royal Opera House, London                                                                  Until May 6 

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This opening night was in the best ‘the show must go on’ tradition. The original Marguerite, the innocent seduced and then dumped by Faust under instruction from the Devil, withdrew with a slipped disc. 

Her replacement then dropped out at 1pm on performance day. With two hours to go, the German soprano Mandy Fredrich arrived from Stuttgart, to be walked through the role by her Faust, Michael Fabiano.

Fredrich successfully projected the vulnerable ingénue Marguerite, to the point that the Royal Opera should reward her with a future part for which she can prepare properly.

This Faust opening night was in the best ‘the show must go on’ tradition. The first Marguerite withdrew with a slipped disc. Her replacement then dropped out at 1pm on performance day

The Uruguayan bass-baritone Erwin Schrott was ill but battled on, and was near-perfect casting as suave, cynical Mephistopheles. Schrott usually seems a rather narcissistic figure; an artist who can always be relied upon to give himself a warm welcome. But as Mephistopheles, self-love works.

Fabiano, having given up his pre-performance routine to help Fredrich, saw his virtue rewarded by an outstandingly secure performance which, at the tender age of 34, makes clear he is set for a first-class career. 

Without ever forcing his tone, he effortlessly filled the auditorium with a stream of mellifluous singing.

With two hours to go, the German soprano Mandy Fredrich arrived, to be walked through the role by her Faust, Michael Fabiano (above) who later proved he is set for a first-class career

The four principals were completed by the French baritone Stéphane Degout, contributing an idiomatically Gallic performance as the goody-goody Valentin.

David McVicar’s production has been around since 2004. It shows all his usual skills in remaining faithful to the spirit of Gounod’s piece, while puncturing, with a lot of low-road business, some of the worst excesses of the opera’s sentimental religiosity and empty piety. 

The sets, costumes and choreography provide a visual feast that will make this production well worth seeing when it hits the cinemas on April 30.

The disappointment here is what happens in the pit. It’s sad that an orchestra that played so well in last month’s Verdi was so sluggish. But then the conductor, Dan Ettinger, is no Antonio Pappano.

There seems no better reason for engaging Ettinger than the fact he has become a regular. Why?

CONCERT OF THE WEEK

Stephen Hough                                                           Royal Festival Hall, London 

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Pianist Stephen Hough is a pretty well-kept secret when he should be a national treasure

On the concert platform he is self-effacing and reticent. He could walk down most streets in Britain and not be recognised. Yet any serious pianophile would put Stephen Hough in the top ten of the world’s players, and pretty high up as well.

He’s in huge demand all over: this season he’s appearing with three of America’s top five orchestras, as well as appearances in Tokyo, Beijing and Kuala Lumpur. His 60 CDs so far have garnered eight Gramophone awards.

At the Royal Festival Hall he lavished every care and attention on Saint-Saëns’ Fifth Piano Concerto, ‘The Egyptian’, written after the composer’s first visit to Egypt. 

The outer movements require dazzling technique, the slow one a mastery of ornamental effects, from imitating the gamelan to idiomatically reproducing a melody Saint-Saëns said he heard sung by a Nubian boatman on the Nile.

In 2002, Hough’s complete Saint-Saëns: Works For Piano And Orchestra (Hyperion) was Gramophone’s Record Of The Year. It’s well worth seeking out. Hough is a pretty well-kept secret, when he ought to be a national treasure.