Spoleto: Part II

Between downpours from tropical storm Barry, I saw three operas while I was in Charleston last week. The intimate Dock Street Theatre was ideal for Gluck's one-act comic opera, "L'ile de Merlin, ou le monde renverse" -- Merlin's Island, or the World Turned Upside Down. And indeed, it was upside down. This was fun to see, having just seen the May Festival's ultra-serious "Orfeo."

Gluck as "Dumb and Dumber"

The premise is that two young Parisians are shipwrecked on an island, that turns out to be a utopian paradise, where lawyers are not corrupt, a female doctor "cures" her patients with pleasure, disputes are setted by a roll of dice and husbands and wives are eternally faithful. Christopher Alden, director, made it a surreal sitcom in popsicle colors, with the protagonists, Eugene Brancoveanu (Scapin) and Keith Phares (Pierrot) sort of like Dumb and Dumber. The libretto was also updated, with lines the guys ("Dudes") say to the gals, like "You're hotter than Helen of Troy." A philosopher (Richard Troxell) makes his entrance in a yellow smiley-face costume.

It was amusing up to a point, and then it became groaningly too slapstick for my taste. There was so much silliness during the overture, for instance, you hardly noticed the charm and genius of Gluck's music, as well as Harry Bicker's superb pit orchestra.

The (green) Moon of Alabama

The next night I saw Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's 1930-era "Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny" in the Sottile Theatre, a barn of a venue. The singing was excellent and the staging, by Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier, was lively and well managed. But the production was too shabby, grim and dark for what already is a shabby, dark tale. For me, the best part was the orchestra, conducted with lithe tempos by Emmanuel Villaume. Tammy Hensrud as Jenny Hill was terrific in the Alabama Song.

A different kind of Faust

The final night, I saw the American premiere of "Faustus, The Last Night," a 90-minute opera by Pascal Dusapin, also in the Sottile Theatre. (Its first performance was last year at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Berlin.) I can't imagine a more striking contrast to Gounod's Faust that everyone knows, and that we shall see on Thursday in Music Hall.

Dusapin took his inspiration from Christopher Marlowe, not Goethe, and wove into his libretto bits from Shakespeare, Beckett, Gertrude Stein and even George W. Bush. It was poetic and deeply intellectual -- but difficult to grasp all at once, upon a first hearing. (I wished that libretti had been sold for each of the operas at this festival.)

This Faust takes place the last night of Faust's life -- and it's all about waiting. Waiting, with Satan and a blind Angel arguing and warning, waiting to be sent into eternal damnation and oblivion, waiting. It is like Waiting for Godot, an existential discussion suspended in time, that is never resolved. (Perhaps the minor character Togod, an anagram of Godot, is meant to remind the viewer of Camus.)

The orchestral score was an evocative canvas -- often with Ligeti-like close harmonies -- that glimmered like the stars and galaxies of the stunning set design. The setting, designed by Carol Bailey, was Faust's study, suspended above the stage and backed by the cosmos. The voices became part of the orchestral canvas, with the weeping Ophelia-like Angel (Heather Buck) given high wails in the stratosphere.

The production, directed by David Herskovits, was riveting. Faust (baritone John Hancock) and Mephistopheles, whom Faust fondly calls "Meth (Stephen West) banter and argue about the meaning of life and death, light and dark, Heaven and Hell,in a combination of vocal arioso and sprechstimme. The intensity of the dialogue waxes and wanes, as Faust is alternately desperate and despondent, while Meph just seems impatient to get on with it.

The singers were superb. Still, its intensity was not for everyone, and people could be seen leaving after the first hour.

Photos: L'ile de Merlin, photo by William Struhs
Mahagonny, photo by Marc Vanappelghem
Faustus, photo by William Struhs
Thanks to the 2007 Spoleto Festival for these.