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) ...
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
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...