The Damnation of Faust

Synopsis

Terry Gilliam is respected around the world as one of the most vivid creative minds working in any art form. As a member of the legendary Monty Python’s Flying Circus his unique animations defined the iconic look of some of the most celebrated comedy ever created. Later, Gilliam brought his expansive imagination to the world of film. The sheer scale and ambition of his cinematic vision gave birth to classics like Brazil, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas starring Johnny Depp and the Oscar-nominated Twelve Monkeys starring Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt.

Now, Gilliam will bring his unmistakable directorial style to the opera stage for the first time. The Damnation of Faust a major new staging with ENO that will see London’s largest theatre transformed into the unique, extravagant world that Gilliam is so well known and loved for.

In Berlioz's rarely performed vision of the immortal legend, Peter Hoare is the fiery title hero whose impulsive bargain with the mocking, mischief-making devil, Méphistophélès (Christopher Purves) proves fatal. Christine Rice plays the seduced and abandoned Marguerite, who gives everything to the man she loves.

ENO's Olivier Award-winning Music Director, Edward Gardner, who conducted this season's opening production of Gounod's Faust, returns to conduct Berlioz's radically different treatment of the same story.

Our Review:

7 May 2011

Any director courageous or foolish enough to stage Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust has to have a pretty strong idea of how to overcome the gaping dramatic holes in the work.  Too often it’s not the case but, with audacious brilliance, Terry Gilliam overcomes the problems and then some.

Whether it’s an opera, an oratorio or “dramatic legend”, and the composer had difficulty making up his mind, the work offers a host of headaches to anyone taking on the challenge.  With a surety of touch that belies his inexperience as a stage director, Gilliam frames the work in a concept that, while confounding all expectations, somehow fits perfectly and never feels imposed.

With Mephistopheles as puppet-master, he takes Faust on a lightning tour through a century of German history, from Caspar David Friedrich romanticism, through Weimar austerity (pramloads of dosh exchanged for a loaf of bread) to the horror years of the mos...

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Latest User Review

Gareth James - 15 May 2011:

I’ve been critical of ENO’s recruitment of film directors. These opera virgins – the late Anthony Minghella, Sally Potter, Mike Figgis and now Terry Gilliam - have had limited success, but it seems to me the real point of recruiting them is not what they bring to the art form but to generate a hype which sells seats. The best part of Figgis’ Lucrezia Borgia was in fact the films slotted into the action. The hype for Gilliam’s effort has been relentless; at one point the opera was billed as ‘Terry Gilliam’s The Damnation of Faust’, demoting Berlioz to a bit part in his own creation. It’s an unusual opera – is it an opera? – with surprisingly little singing, but it does have some lovely music and the Faust legend is of course made for opera – Gounod, Busoni and Boito also had a go. Gilliam’s concept is to ‘follow the trajectory of German art and history from the late nineteenth century to the mid twentieth century’ and it’s a perfectly valid concept. The opening Caspar David Friedrich image is spellbinding. Then his imagination runs riot and he downloads so many ideas it’s difficult to keep up. It does slow down in the second half, which allows the story to breathe, but it is an extraordinary flight of the imagination. The trouble is, this swamps the story and overpowers Berlioz’ music, so it really is ‘Terry Gilliam’s The Damnation of Faust’. The more experienced design team of Hildegard Bechtler, Katrina Lindsay and Peter Mumford do extraordinary work converting these ideas into stunning visual imagery, assisted by Finn Ross’ giant projections. Things aren’t so good in the music department, despite the fact that Edward Gardner is at the helm. The chorus was often ragged, Peter Hoare started well as Faust but in the second half was no match for Christine Rice’s gorgeous Marguerite and Christopher Purves continued his long journey from Harvey & The Wallbangers to give us a respectable Mephistopheles. Musically it wasn’t a patch on the LSO under Sir Colin Davies in concert or even Met Live at the cinema. If you want to see Terry Gilliam’s The Damnation of Faust, you’ll be rewarded with a spectacle as spectacular as anything you’ve seen before in an opera house. If you want to see Berlioz’ The Damnation of Faust, you might be better giving it a miss....

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