Tag Archives: Faust
Faust – The End
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 19th April 2023Charles Gounod’s opera Faust, very loosely based of Part1 of Goethe’s Faust, was once so frequently performed that its constant presence at New York’s Metropolitan Opera caused the house to be derisively dubbed the Faustspielhaus. Today the opera, while still performed is not as frequent a visitor at the world’s lyric theaters as it was…
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Valentin’s Aria
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 8th November 2020The famous baritone aria from Gounod’s Faust, ‘Avant de quitter ces lieux’, was not in the opera’s original French version. It was written by Gounod to an English text by Henry Chorley especially for the great English baritone Charles Santley (1834-1922). ‘Even the bravest heart’ was loosely translated into French for subsequent performances. Santely was,…
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Stories Used By More Than One Composer – Faust
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 29th August 2019You’d think there were enough good stories available so that composers didn’t need to recycle them. But there are a number of operas that are based on tales that have been around the operatic block more than once. This article is the first of a series examining operas and related musical works based on the…
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La Damnation de Faust: Berlioz and Video Projection
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 23rd November 2008The Met’s new production of Berlioz’s I don’t know what to call it but it’s a masterpiece La Damnation de Faust was broadcast in HD on Saturday Nov 22, 2008. Robert Lepage directed the show making extensive use of computerized video images. Though Berlioz intended the piece to be a concert work, it has been…
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