Love London Love Culture rounds up the reviews for David McVicar’s production.
Culture Whisper: **** “Dan Ettinger conducting the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House made chinks in the wall of sound for lovely solo work, and the Royal Opera Chorus gives its best in the big, big numbers.”
The Guardian: **** “McVicar’s staging, transposing the opera to Second Empire Paris on the eve of the Franco-Prussian war and exposing the moral and sexual hypocrisies of a society on the skids, remains a thing of wonder.”
The Telegraph: *** “Fifteen years and five revivals later, David McVicar’s production of Faust is proving one of Covent Garden’s most bankable shows.”
Express: **** “With an enduring legend, great singing and acting, McVicar’s wicked imagination and some splendidly satanic choreography, this is a production well worth seeing.”
Evening Standard: *** “McVicar’s signature testosterone-fuelled theatricality provides the glue that (just about) holds this riotously camp extravaganza together.”
Bachtrack: **** “The ROH Chorus was in particularly lusty form as the returning soldiers. I’ve rarely been convinced by Ettinger’s conducting, but here he did just about everything right, following singers well and drawing voluptuous playing from the orchestra. A devilishly fun performance.”
Londonist: **** “The production is a decadent, devilish delight, from the heady streets of Paris teeming with lusty soldiers, to a raucous, glittering cabaret and majestic, sacred chapels.”
Broadway World: **** “From the outset, this mammoth production delights. Even against the incredible adversity of losing its lead soprano, Faust is a challenging and exciting piece. Ravella’s revival ensures it remains a treasured piece for those lucky enough to see it.”
The London Magazine: “Faust is a very typical French grand opera and this production is about as good as it gets. The performances by Schrott, Fredrich and Degout were brilliant, layered, and exciting to watch.”
www.gscene.com: “This was an exercise in high camp done with a deftness of touch from conductor Ettinger which gives the music a serious emotional heft regardless of the sometimes daftness being played out on stage.”
The Arts Desk: *** “Ettinger points up the dances’ superior quality, but he also finds subtleties in Gounod’s more chamber-like moments, with splendid work from the Royal Opera first clarinet especially, works wonders on the ghost-reminiscences of Marguerite in the final scene and allows no slack in the bulky drama, while never going into overdrive.”
Opera Wire: “Buried under a hodgepodge of new, poorly engineered choreography and outspoken disorder, the original McVicar production seems to yearn to be exhumed.”
The FT: “It is all lavish, fustily Victorian in its period setting, but garishly alive.”
Faust continues to play at the Royal Opera House until the 6th May.