Mefistofele

The Easter parade. Photo by Cory Weaver.

On Friday night at 6:45 PM I gave the woman behind the ticket counter $10 and in return she gave me standing room ticket #31, which meant San Francisco Opera's revival of Arrigo Boito's Mefistofele wasn't going to be very crowded. I went inside, placed my coat near the center of the orchestra level rail, then went outside to read the program and enjoy a cup of coffee. The main article in the program didn't make it sound like I was going to regret going on the cheap, as it included this quote about the opera from none other than the composer's friend and eventual publisher Giulio Ricordi:

“Boito has written an opera with many virtues and not a few defects. The question is: are these defects due to inexperience as regards the stage and matters theatrical? In that case, so much the better; we shall note a steady progress from one opera to the next, and in due course I shall hope to number Boito among the great composers. If, however, these faults are the result of a preconceived theory, of an unshakable artistic conviction, then I must say with all the frankness which informs my warm and deeply felt friendship for Boito: you may be a poet and a distinguished man of letters, but you will never be a composer for the musical stage.”

Next came this quote from George Bernard Shaw:

“Boito’s version of the Faust story seems almost as popular as Gounod’s, though Gounod’s is a true musical creation whereas Boito has only adapted the existing resources of orchestration and harmony very ably to his libretto. The whole work is a curious example of what can be done in opera by an accomplished literary man without original musical gifts, but with ten times the taste and culture of a musician of only ordinary extraordinariness.”

Reading this made me wonder why San Francisco Opera can be so prickly when someone slams one of their productions because apparently they're actually paying someone to write program notes stating what you're about to see and hear was once considered by experts to be shit.

Despite being almost twenty-five years old, Robert Carsen's production is one of the best things I've seen on the stage of the War Memorial in quite a long time. Michael Levine's sets and Gary Marder's lighting are gorgeous to look at and exquisitely detailed, from the flaming, blood-red curtain of their theater-within-a-theater concept to the priapic costuming of the male chorus during the Witches Sabbath scene, there is always something visual clamoring for one's attention. The conclusion of the Prologue, with the chorus occupying the entire stage and four tiers of opera boxes filled with trios of angels holding candles aloft as they belt out "Hail to thee," is one of those moments that could easily turn a first-time opera goer into an enthusiast. It gave me chills of pleasure, though the music caused me to make a mental note to check which came first, Mefistofele or Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana because there was some "borrowing" going on somewhere. Cav is the latter work, and in thinking about it I wonder if Mascagni's intent was to create a leitmotif based on the Faustian theme, which would be a nice touch, or did he just steal some ear candy from Boito? Probably the latter.

Act 1 starts off with an Easter Sunday carnival, which is an even greater delight than what came before. I haven't seen something on this stage with this much visual energy since the 1999 production of Un Ballo in Maschera, which was idiotically destroyed for some reason during the Rosenberg era. Ironically, that production also featured the SFO debut of tenor Ramon Vargas, who took over the role of Riccardo during the last two performances from an ailing Richard Margison. I was in the house for the first of them, and Vargas made his entrance by bursting onstage with an exuberance and energy that I've never seen nor heard from him since. Vargas is the Faust of this production, co-starring with Ildar Abdrazakov as Mefistofele. Vargas and Abdrazakov know these roles well because they've performed them together before- not only in Boito's operatic version of Goethe's story, but also in Berlioz's and Gounod's. It's kind of strange if you ask me, like they've become the operatic version of Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci's appearances in gangster films.

Perhaps it's this over familiarity with each other and the roles that saps both men's performances of some much needed charisma. While Abdrazakov undoubtedly has the physical presence to play the Devil, and can ham it up with ease, his performance lacks wit and engagement. During Act 2's Walpurgis Night scene he's placed on a long buffet table surrounded by minions who are having a wickedly good time beneath him but all he does is sit leisurely on a throne. I was thinking while watching this how static it felt despite all the hubbub coming from the chorus and that the Devil should be dancing across that table, not idly sitting on it. The fault for this may lie with the revival's director Laurie Feldman, but I would think that Abdrazakov, with all his experience in the part, would have something more to contribute besides mugging his way through the scenes, no matter how adroitly. His voice too, has lost some of it menace since I last heard him as the Devil in the Berlioz version at the Met in 2009 (yes, Vargas was Faust in that one as well), his lower register becoming inaudible at times.

Vargas frustrates me. He's capable of great singing, can be an engaging actor, and possesses a distinct instrument. But the last few times I've seen him he seems to coast through most of the performance, saving his powers for his last big moment onstage where he decides to really let loose, but for the previous three hours he looked and sounded like he was simply going through the motions. Not that Boito has given him a Faust to work with of any depth or dimension, in fact of three versions in the standard rep his is the least interesting, but Vargas seemed to have nothing to offer beyond what's on the page.

Patricia Racette is too mature to be convincing as Margherita at this point, which makes sense since she also sang the role here in 1994. However, this is a distraction only during Act 2, where the richness of her tone and physical stature are incapable of letting her come across convincingly as an innocent youth. Her voice seemed stretched, shrill during the quartet in the garden scene, no doubt from the ridiculous burden she's currently placing on it by performing lead roles in two operas at once. In Act 3, which returns her to the garden, now an almost unrecognizable wasteland, her maturity becomes an asset as Margherita grieves over the death of her mother and child, the end result of her affair with Faust. Like Vargas was to do in the Epilogue, she summoned a stunning amount of power for her final aria, and with the exception of one alarmingly off note slipping through during her first aria, she sang the big moments with impressive strength and clarity.

Current Adler Fellows Chaunyue Wang as Wagner and Erin Johnson as Marta were both impressive in the smaller roles, especially Johnson's breasts which could merit their own mention in the cast as Jello On Springs, to quote Jack Lemmon. Marina Harris was good as Helen of Troy during Act 4, but at this point the opera really begins to drag, and both she and Renee Rapier as Pantalis have somewhat unfortunate assignments because I can't imagine anyone's attention isn't beginning to wander toward their watch during this part, which is largely devoid of any excitement onstage.

After Faust's death, a moment which despite Vargas' best vocal efforts contains little drama, the angels in the theater return, ending the show on another stunning high note. Nicola Luisotti led the orchestra in a thoroughly robust performance, but certainly didn't disprove Shaw's observations. See it for the production values and the work of the chorus, both of which are remarkable.