Review-Faust-Opera Hong Kong
10-5-14
By: Satoshi Kyo
From Goethe to Goth. For this year's Le French May, it offers to show how the French composer Gounod reduced a thoughtful psychological tragedy by German writer Goethe down to a frothing Gothic romp. Director Paul-Emile Fourny magnified this vision by limiting the color palette on stage to grayscale with occasional red; and it worked. Well, to a certain extent. One of the biggest inconsistencies and one that was most distracting was the make-up of the performers. For some reason, some of them displayed a green corpse-like pallor, while others looked ordinary.
While the concept was evident, the actions on stage left a lot to be desired. Whether it was the transformation of Faust into a lovely young man in Act 1 or the death of Valentin in Act IV, the direction and performance were just always a bit off sync with the concept.
The strength of the evening, however, was the singing. All the leads were in top form. Stefan Pop as Faust, while maybe slightly lacking the required vocal weight, has a beautiful and youthful timbre that suitably characterized his role. Dimitry Ivashchenko's Mephistopheles was slithering and baneful with a bass that exuded easy malevolence. Tatiana Lisnic managed to show a convincing transition vocally and dramatically from a shy and innocent young woman to a fallen one. Rounding off this competent cast was Zhou Zhengzhong, who gave a believable portrayal of Valentin.
French conductor Benjamin Pionnier kept a good hand on the Hong Kong Sinfonietta. While a few portions of the opera were a touch on the slow side, Pionnier managed to produce a tight and cohesive sound from the orchestra. The Opera Hong Kong Chorus made the most of their participation by contributing to the dramatic content and atmosphere.
Overall, it was a good opening night marked by wonderful singing from the leads and playing from the orchestra.
Opera Hong Kong's Faust is playing at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre through May 11th. For more information, click here.
Comments
Rick
I can't comment on the singing as I don't have any expertise in that area, but it seemed good to me. The HK Sinfonietta sounded spot on as always. But the direction, sets, costumes ? … it might be the worst direction I have ever seen of an opera by a major world opera company. It was as if the director told the singers to "just go to the edge of the stage, look at the audience, and sing". Sometimes the action, or lack of action, had nothing to do with what was supposed to be going on. The set looked like a graveyard. There are times in the opera when that would be appropriate, but not all of it. I am very disappointed. It was the most boring $880 I have ever spent. But I do admire the HK Opera for bringing this to us in HK. They have done some great things in the past. This just wasn't one of them.
12 May 2014caroline
Honestly I couldn't wait to leave. After the great "Flying Dutchman" last year I really thought that Opera Hong Kong was choosing better productions to import at last. Faust was under-rehearsed and as Rick says, boring. Some good voices from the imported singers and also the Hong Kong based ones. The chorus sounded good but what happened to direction? Having six ladies exit stage right rolling on the floor was extraordinary... especially since they couldn't see their exit clearly and rolled into the wing curtains. I failed to find any moments of real tension but saw many missed opportunities. I understand that there were only ten days of rehearsal after the principal singers had arrived.This must explain the sad state of affairs on stage. The HK Sinfonietta were lovely; if I closed my eyes I might have been better off. These days, opera has to be theatrically fulfilling, characters convincing. Gone are the days of "park and bark". I loved OHK's production of Sun Yet Sen, commissioned by the HK government. It was a beautiful piece which is now to be performed by the Santa Fe Opera company this summer. There are lovely singers in HK and China. Why don't we hear more of them as soloists in OHK? The OHK chorus shows that excellent work can be done here. Let's hear more of it.
14 May 2014