Hector Berlioz, La damnation de Faust (1846)

There's some uncertainty as to whether this should be considered an opera; it's more often performed just as a concert due to Staging Difficulties. But I dunno; it sure looked like an opera to me, and according to Wikipedia, Berlioz wanted it to be while conceding that, due to technological limits of the time, it didn't really work as such. But now we have no limits! We can do anything! ANYTHING!!!  Except run a democratic society.  Oh well.

It would probably be bootless to describe the plot: it's the Faust legend, basically. There are a few differences in how it shakes out that may be surprising, but that's basically it. But, I have to say--and this might be partially why people don't think of it as an opera--it does have significant story issues. A lot of the story just isn't there; you have to fill it in yourself. The relationship between Faust and Marguerite is never developed in any way. And the overall logic of salvation and damnation feels pretty arbitrary and illogical. Furthermore, even insofar as we overlook these things, it doesn't really tell a story so much as link together a series of very loose tableaux that sorta-kinda hover around the vicinity of a story.

But none of this matters, because Berlioz's music is sumptuous and ravishing and remarkably expressive and the vignettes, regardless of whether they add up to anything, are frequently really striking and dramatic, never more so--I should think--than in Robert Lepage's production. This was before his Rings, but it probably actually works better than those do: you have different levels and cubicles that characters can be standing in, like a cross-section of an apartment building, and you have video being projected onto the wall that--we are told--is interactive, reacting to the characters' singing and changing tone or pitch or whatnot, and yes, undeniably there are a few places where it's a little silly, but it mostly works remarkably well, and is a feast for both ears and eyes.

There are only three significant characters (or, you could argue, only two; Marguerite really amounts to little more than a glorified cameo--the fact that she appears in the curtain call after Mephistopheles feels totally unjustified--is Susan Graham some sorta prima donna who would've demanded it?), and only four period, along with a large chorus, which is great, as one would anticipate. I feel like in a Faust story, Mephistopheles is always going to be the most striking character (as well as, almost certainly, the most fun to play), so it's maybe not really fair to say that John Relya actually does the best job, per se: he's elevated by the role and also his costume, and especially his ostentatiously-feathered hat--but he sure is great, regardless. Honestly, Faust and Marguerite don't really get that much to do, but Marcello Giordani and Susan Graham are plenty solid, and I also really liked Patrick Carfizzi in a small role as a random dude in a tavern who sings a drinking song.

Anyway, great stuff. Two thumbs up.