Berlioz - La Damnation de Faust
£26.55
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Label: Erato
Cat No: 9029541735
Format: CD + DVD
Number of Discs: 3
Genre: Opera
Release Date: 22nd November 2019
Contents
Artists
Joyce DiDonato (mezzo-soprano)Michael Spyres (tenor)
Nicolas Courjal (bass)
Alexandre Duhamel (baritone)
Veronica Silva (soprano)
Coro Gulbenkian
Les Petits Chanteurs de Strasbourg
Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg
Conductor
John NelsonWorks
La Damnation de Faust, op.24 H111Artists
Joyce DiDonato (mezzo-soprano)Michael Spyres (tenor)
Nicolas Courjal (bass)
Alexandre Duhamel (baritone)
Veronica Silva (soprano)
Coro Gulbenkian
Les Petits Chanteurs de Strasbourg
Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg
Conductor
John NelsonAbout
This recording was made in the Auditorium Erasme in Strasbourg in April 2019, two years after Nelson, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg and a superb cast including Joyce DiDonato, Michael Spyres and Nicolas Courjal brought Berlioz’s Les Troyens to life in the same venue. The associated Erato recording of the huge two-part opera has gone on to win unalloyed praise and multiple major prizes. As the New York Times wrote: “Berlioz’s epic opera has rarely been given such luxury treatment as in this magnificent live recording from France.”
For La Damnation de Faust, Nelson, DiDonato, Spyres and Courjal – described by France Musique as a ‘dream team” – were joined by French baritone Alexandre Duhamel. Capturing the thrill of the occasion, and remembering the impact of Les Troyens, Bachtrack wrote: “Lightning, they say, never strikes in the same place twice. If that's the case, then somebody please explain the scorch marks streaked across Strasbourg's Palais de la Musique et des Congrès ... Nelson wove Berlioz's fantastical score miraculously and meticulously.”
The Times, also giving a five-star review to the performance, said: “Strasbourg is a kind of meeting point between France and Germany — and in a way so is Damnation, in which the extravagance of Berlioz’s writing meets the philosophical rigour of Goethe. The conductor favours this orchestra, too, for its Gallic colours and Germanic discipline. It makes an impressive blend. The Hungarian March, kicked off by Nelson with deceptive calm, built up to a strutting, testosterone-fuelled climax. Amid the great setpieces, however, one admired the sinuous delicacy of the OPS’s playing: the gauzy strings accompanying the devil’s serenade, ‘Voici des roses’, the eerie woodwind tinkle of the infernal spirits, and the two instrumental partners in Marguerite’s big arias, first a silky viola, then a luminous cor anglais ... Vivid characters massed behind the orchestra — the Coro Gulbenkian, a virtuosic Portuguese choir who played impeccable Easter celebrants, lusty peasants and outrageously raucous students, but saved the best for worst as the cacophonous imps of Hell. Their richly detailed performances set the tone for the soloists. Nicolas Courjal’s Méphistophélès … took wicked ownership of the text, playing Faust like a fish on a line. This is a devil who would happily pour the champagne at the same time as impaling your nether regions with a pitchfork. He made a compelling foil for Spyres’s ardent, doomed and near unsurpassable Faust. He’s a fearless tenor who can do baritonal strength as well as spinetinglingly floated high notes, and who — by the end of the night — seemed utterly under the spell of Mephisto and Berlioz ... DiDonato [was] a Marguerite of marvellous elegance and vulnerability, close to delirium in her last scene, an emotion the whole audience could partake in when it was all over.”
- Marguerite: Joyce DiDonato (mezzo-soprano)
- Faust: Michael Spyres (tenor)
- Méphistophélès: Nicolas Courjal (bass)
- Brander: Alexandre Duhamel (baritone)
- Une voix céleste: Verónica Silva (soprano)
Bonus DVD: Highlights from the live concert, 25 April 2019
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