Opera

Gounod's Faust

Bruno Ravella (stage director, after David McVicar), Dan Ettinger (conductor) — With Michael Fabiano (Faust), Erwin Schrott (Méphistophélès), Irina Lungu (Marguerite), Stéphane Degout (Valentin) ...

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Cast

David McVicar — Stage director

Bruno Ravella — Co-stage director

Michael Keegan-Dolan — Choreographer

Michael Fabiano — Faust

Irina Lungu — Marguerite

Erwin Schrott — Méphistophélès

Stéphane Degout — Valentin

Marta Fontanals-Simmons — Siébel

Carole Wilson — Marthe Schwertlein

Germán E. Alcántara — Wagner

Royal Opera Chorus

William Spaulding — Chorus Master

Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

Dan Ettinger — Conductor

Program notes

This production of Gounod's Faust by Bruno Ravella—a revival of David McVicar's from 2004—won over the public with its gorgeous sets, costumes, and lighting design that combine to create an immersive experience of the eponymous legend and the famous play by Goethe. The soaring voices of Michael Fabiano, Erwin Schrott, and Irina Lungu, supported by the esteemed Royal Opera House Chorus and Orchestra under Dan Ettinger, bring the spectacle to vibrant life.

The five-act opera, composed to a libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, premiered at Paris's Théâtre Lyrique in 1859 and met with a success to rival that of Bizet's Carmen a few years later. Gounod's best-known work, it has been performed hundreds of times in countries all over the world—and was even the very first opera performed by the Metropolitan Opera in New York on its opening in 1883. It has also made appearances in other media: in Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera (and several of its adaptations), the beloved Adventures of Tintin series of graphic novels, Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence, and Chekhov's The Seagull...

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