Update From the Independent
Another- /Update.
From the Financial Times; Telegraph and Guardian
This will be shown on BBC2 on Saturday at 6.30pm (what a shame that Jimmy is having a serious blokes' night out...!)
To summarise:
For sheer eye-popping theatricality, this is a spectacle that outdoes anything you'll see in the West End. The Walpurgisnacht scene, over which Terfel presides in drag, begins as a parody of Giselle, but rapidly disintegrates into an orgy of sadism and rape. Funny, erotic and disturbing by turns, Faust makes for a compelling evening.Antonio Pappano was in his element, making Gounod's music sparkle with effervescence; Antonio Pappano's fresh, buoyant and affectionate conducting inspired the orchestra to pellucid playing, putting paid to Gounod's undeserved reputation for lachrymose simpering; Only Antonio Pappano's overly Italianate conducting disappoints.
Angela Gheorghiu was in gleaming voice; Angela Gheorghiu makes some ravishing velvet noises and flings herself into the role with passion. But there was too much inaccuracy and sloppiness in her singing (she was heavily prompted), and her French is rubbish; Gheorghiu, unlike most Marguérites, is capable of encompassing both the lyricism of the love scenes and the horror of her subsequent descent into insanity.
Roberto Alagna rang out proudly on Faust's top notes; Roberto Alagna's Faust was marred by patches of bellowing and top notes sustained to the point of vulgarity. Some softer, easier phrases were beautifully done, however, and he, too, acted enthusiastically; The real revelation, however, is Alagna, who gives the performance of a lifetime, physically daring - he celebrates Faust's new-found youth by cartwheeling round the stage - and vocally and dramatically responsive to every psychological shift.
Bryn Terfel made a predictably prodigious Méphistophélès with voice and character to spare. Then the Walpurgisnacht ballet went over the top with Terfel's Méphistophélès throwing off his black cape to reveal himself in drag, dolled up as Queen Victoria's rugby half-back twin sister in tiara and sequined black evening-dress; Bryn Terfel's Mephistopheles was all the better for being so understated - a little rough in the first two acts, perhaps, but chillingly authoritative in the latter part of the opera. His dragged-up appearance as the Comtesse de Castiglione in the ballet was a show-stopper; Terfel sings with panache.
You pay your money, you take your choice - hold on, you pay no money. It's free on the Beeb or in the Covent Garden Piazza!
Interviews with Angela Gheorghiu and Bryn Terfel
Update - do feel free to leave comments - the stern warning at the bottom is to deter silly kids saying 'u sck' rather then shy, intelligent people elevating my thinking...!
