CHAN 3089 Book Cover new.qxd 21/5/07 5:08 pm Page 1 CHAN 3089(2) CHANDOS O PERA IN ENGLISH PETER MOORES FOUNDATION CHAN 3089 BOOK.qxd 21/5/07 5:11 pm Page 2 Charles Gounod (1818–1893) AKG Faust (abridged) Opera in five acts Libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré English translation by Christopher Cowell Faust, a learned doctor.............................................................Paul Charles Clarke tenor Mephistopheles ..................................................................................Alastair Miles bass Marguerite .......................................................................................Mary Plazas soprano Valentin, Marguerite’s brother, a soldier ........................................Garry Magee baritone Siébel, a village youth, in love with Marguerite..............Diana Montague mezzo-soprano Wagner, a student.......................................................Matthew Hargreaves bass-baritone Martha, Marguerite’s neighbour...........................................Sarah Walker mezzo-soprano Geoffrey Mitchell Choir Philharmonia Orchestra Nicholas Kok assistant conductor Charles Gounod David Parry conductor 3 CHAN 3089 BOOK.qxd 21/5/07 5:11 pm Page 4 COMPACT DISC ONE Time Page Time Page Act I [p. 54] 9 ‘Duty bids me leave this place’ 3:50 [p. 77] 1 Introduction 7:03 [p. 70] Valentin 10 ‘Cheer up, my friends!’ 1:24 [p. 77] Scene 1 35:26 [p. 54] Wagner, Chorus, Mephistopheles 2 ‘Nothing! In vain I have probed’ 6:14 [p. 70] Faust Scene 3 35:26 [p. 54] 3 ‘Lazy little daughter open up your eyes’ 2:55 [p. 70] 11 ‘Pride of place to the golden calf !’ 2:04 [p. 77] Chorus, Faust Mephistopheles, Chorus 4 ‘Can your God help me know the truth?’ 1:21 [p. 71] 12 ‘Your song deserves our thanks!’ 2:47 [p. 78] Faust Chorus, Valentin, Wagner, Mephistopheles, Siébel 13 ‘Though the fiends of hell may defy resistance’ 2:32 [p. 79] Scene 2 35:26 [p. 54] Siébel, Valentin, Wagner, Chorus 5 ‘Here I am! You seem somewhat startled’ 2:50 [p. 71] Mephistopheles, Faust Scene 4 35:26 [p. 54] 6 ‘So bring me the bliss of careless excesses’ 6:45 [p. 72] 14 ‘You haven’t seen the last of me yet!’ 1:33 [p. 79] Faust, Mephistopheles Mephistopheles, Faust Act II [p. 54] Scene 5 35:26 [p. 54] Scene 1 35:26 [p. 54] 15 ‘Just as when the whispering breezes…’ 1:16 [p. 80] 7 ‘Beer or gin or wine or kvass’ 4:55 [p. 74] Chorus, Mephistopheles, Faust, Siébel Chorus, Wagner 16 ‘May I presume to ask’ 4:03 [p. 80] Faust, Marguerite, Siébel, Mephistopheles, Chorus Scene 2 35:26 [p. 54] 8 ‘Oh, sacred medallion from the sister I love’ 1:45 [p. 76] Valentin, Wagner, Siébel, Chorus 4 5 CHAN 3089 BOOK.qxd 21/5/07 5:11 pm Page 6 Time Page COMPACT DISC TWO Time Page Act III [p. 54] Scene 7 35:26 [p. 54] 17 Entr’acte 1:28 [p. 81] 1 ‘Bless my soul, I’m dreaming!’ 0:47 [p. 85] Martha, Marguerite Scene 1 35:26 [p. 54] 18 ‘You must help me reveal the love I feel’ 2:46 [p. 81] Scene 8 35:26 [p. 54] Siébel 2 ‘Dame Martha Schwerlein, I believe’ 2:29 [p. 85] Mephistopheles, Martha, Marguerite, Faust Scene 2 35:26 [p. 54] 3 ‘Please take my arm, they won’t mind!’ 6:56 [p. 86] 19 ‘Are we there?’ 1:15 [p. 82] Faust, Marguerite, Mephistopheles, Martha Faust, Mephistopheles, Siébel Scene 10 35:26 [p. 54] Scene 3 35:26 [p. 54] 4 ‘And none too soon!’ 1:52 [p. 89] 20 ‘Wait here for a while, Doctor Faust’ 1:03 [p. 82] Mephistopheles Mephistopheles, Faust Scene 11 35:26 [p. 54] Scene 4 35:26 [p. 54] 5 ‘It’s very late… Farewell!’ 7:03 [p. 89] 21 ‘What turbulent feelings possess me?’ 6:44 [p. 83] Marguerite, Faust Faust 6 ‘Marguerite!’ 4:39 [p. 90] Scene 5 Faust, Marguerite 22 ‘Be careful! Here she comes!’ 0:43 [p. 83] Scene 13 35:26 [p. 54] Mephistopheles, Faust 7 ‘Look there! She’s opening her window…’ 4:03 [p. 91] Scene 6 35:26 [p. 54] Mephistopheles, Marguerite, Faust 23 ‘He would have held my hand if I’d only allowed him’ 6:36 [p. 83] 24 ‘A bouquet! It’s from Siébel I’m sure’ 5:22 [p. 84] Marguerite TT 79:33 [p. 85] 6 7 CHAN 3089 BOOK.qxd 21/5/07 5:11 pm Page 8 Time Page Time Page Act IV [p. 54] Scene 7 35:26 [p. 54] Scene 1 35:26 [p. 54] 15 ‘What can I do for you?’ 4:07 [p. 96] 8 ‘They pass me in the street…’ 6:32 [p. 92] Valentin, Mephistopheles, Faust Marguerite, Chorus Scene 8 35:26 [p. 54] 16 Scene 2 35:26 [p. 54] ‘Over here, come at once!’ 1:49 [p. 97] Martha, Chorus, Valentin, Marguerite, Siébel 9 ‘Marguerite!’ ‘Siébel!’ 1:36 [p. 92] 17 ‘Pay heed to my words, Marguerite!’ 5:07 [p. 98] 10 ‘When happy days bring you gladness and laughter’ 4:28 [p. 93] Siébel, Marguerite Valentin, Chorus Act V [p. 54] Scene 4 35:26 [p. 54] Scene 4 11 ‘Come along my brothers’ 3:00 [p. 93] 18 ‘Go back!’ 2:14 [p. 98] Chorus, Valentin, Siébel Faust, Mephistopheles 12 ‘We seek the soldier’s immortal prize’ 3:14 [p. 94] Chorus Scene 5 35:26 [p. 54] 19 ‘My heart quails at the thought of this meeting!’ 2:24 [p. 99] Scene 5 35:26 [p. 54] Faust 13 ‘Come on, Siébel, I need a drink or two!’ 2:10 [p. 94] 20 ‘Ah! Do I hear my lover’s voice?’ 5:24 [p. 99] Valentin, Siébel, Mephistopheles, Faust Marguerite, Faust Scene 6 35:26 [p. 54] Scene 6 35:26 [p. 54] 14 ‘Is my love awake or sleeping’ 2:51 [p. 95] 21 ‘Make haste now!’ 6:31 [p. 100] Mephistopheles Mephistopheles, Marguerite, Faust, Chorus TT 79:35 [p. 85] 8 9 CHAN 3089 BOOK.qxd 21/5/07 5:11 pm Page 10 the famed baritone, so when the first first part of Goethe’s work was aroused by Charles Gounod: Faust performance of the opera in English was reading Gérard de Nerval’s translation of the planned for the following year, Santley play. He immediately fell in love with it, An old friend of Gounod’s, the Abbé Gay and whenever the opera has been given, which suggested that the composer might write a deciding to turn this ‘fabulous story’ into commented after the 1859 premiere of what has been very often. song for him using a melody that appears in music. His travels in Goethe’s own country, was to become the composer’s most popular First presented at the Théâtre Lyrique as an the Prelude. So it came about that the famous abounding in ancient legends, served to score: ‘The world has got into him and has opéra comique, i.e. with dialogue, in 1859, it baritone cavatina was born. The critic Henry strengthen his will. Then he heard Berlioz’s chased out Jesus Christ.’ That is an apt reached the Opéra ten years later when it was Chorley wrote the words: ‘Even bravest heart La damnation de Faust, which profoundly comment on a composer who found it hard to performed with the recitative Gounod had may swell’ [‘Duty bids me leave this place’ in moved him. However, it did not inhibit his reconcile his twin stars: the love of God and written for a Strasbourg performance in 1860, the present recording]. It was an immediate own wish to set Goethe; quite the contrary, it the love of sensuality, something reflected in and that is the form in which it is usually success, and has been a staple of baritone proved a stimulus. In 1849, he made an early his compositions. His oratorios and other presented today. It received its 2000th recitals ever since. attempt at setting the church scene. sacred works are now largely forgotten; his performance there in 1944 and had reached its Sir Thomas Beecham was one of Faust’s Then he met the writers who were to be the works for the theatre, or at least two of them, 2836th by the time of Jorge Lavelli’s new main advocates, and he made a recording in librettists of Faust, Jules Barbier and Michel Faust and Roméo et Juliette, live on, performed production in 1975, a tribute in itself to its English in 1929, with a cast derived from the Carré, the latter the author of a play Faust et in all operatic capitals. Religious aspirations longevity and popularity. It was first heard in British National Opera Company headed by Marguerite, seen by Gounod in 1850. That began to take a back seat when Gounod met Italy, at La Scala, in 1862. Most of the Heddle Nash and Miriam Licette, and then provided the basis for the opera’s libretto. Pauline Viardot, the celebrated singer, who alterations and abridgements made on that recorded it again in the late 1940s in France in Barbier reduced the play to just the right had drawn his attention to the opera house. occasion became traditional thereafter, the original language with a French cast. dimensions to suit Gounod. He eliminated or Another commentator, the painter Delacroix including the elimination of the Walpurgis Although it went through something of a conflated characters and incidents, essential averred: ‘A composer writes Faust and that Night scene. trough in popular esteem after that, it has when a play is accommodated to the slower makes him forget all about Hades.’ The battle It was introduced to England in 1863, seldom been out of the repertory of British pace of opera. Only Mephistopheles and some in Gounod’s soul between the sacred and the being given every season until 1911 (much to companies, being presented regularly both at demons remain of supernatural characters.