McVicar's production of Gounod's 'Faust' at the Palau de les Arts of Valencia.
The parallel between art and life is one aspect of opera productions that has been used time and again, but never quite as well as in this Faust by Gounod staged in the futuristic-looking Palau de les Arts complex of Valencia. The show, first staged in Convent Garden in 2004, is one of the most successful by talented director David McVicar, who marries the underlying theme of Mann's Doktor Faustus by turning the main character into a composer rather than a doctor. This then leads to continuous references to reality (France in the time of Gounod) and to theatre: everything is brought to life thanks to work on the acting of the characters, which is the Scottish director's hallmark. Numerous examples are worthy of mention in this production, a representation of live theatre with every scene, but most interesting of all is the decision to insert dances on Walpurgis Night: here no longer a dark cavern, but a stage on which Faust observes, powerless, the danced and grotesque pantomime of the protagonists and their adventures, guided by a disguised Mephistopheles. Whereas the drama is mask and make-believe, the dreams of the artist Faust come up against the ambiguity of the theatre of life. All of this would not have been possible without a cast that was able to make the director's concept credible: as a lead role, Vittorio Grigolo is vocally a little too pushed, although he seems made for the show; likewise, the physical attractiveness and vocal power of Erwin Schrott portray an evil of the utmost appeal. Slightly more bland but technically very strong is Alexia Voulgaridou's Marguerite, whereas the baton of Frédéric Chaslin limits itself to accompaniment, thus overlooking the nuances that Gounod's rich score has to offer. An outstanding success for a public the average age of which was half that usually found in an Italian theatre.