The Collins Guide To Opera And Operetta. Michael White
Soprano
Synopsis of the Plot
Setting: Heaven, 16th-century Frankfurt, Classical Greece
PROLOGUE In heaven Mefistofele wagers with God that he can gain possession of Faust’s soul.
ACT I It is Easter Sunday and Faust is observing the celebrations. Among the crowds he notices a strange, grey monk, who, unseen by Faust, follows him to his home. As Faust begins to study his Bible, the monk makes himself known and, as Mefistofele, quickly persuades Faust to promise him his soul in exchange for renewed youth and Mefistofele’s services.
ACT II Faust meets Margherita and successfully seduces her, giving her a sleeping potion to give to her mother so that they will not be disturbed. Then Faust accompanies Mefistofele to the frenzied Walpurgisnacht (Witches’ Sabbath) celebrations in the Harz mountains. But as the dancing becomes wilder and wilder Faust suddenly sees a vision of Margherita with a red ring round her neck.
ACT III Margherita is in a condemned cell, convicted of drowning the baby she has borne Faust and poisoning her mother. Mefistofele brings Faust to see her and they talk of escaping, but when she recognises Mefistofele as the Devil, Margherita rejects Faust and dies, praying for forgiveness, and Mefistofele drags Faust away.
ACT IV Mefistofele transports Faust back to classical Greece where he spends a rapturous time with the beautiful Helen of Troy.
EPILOGUE Now aged and alone, Faust reflects on the pointlessness of his experiences; he turns to the Gospels to give him strength and courage to resist Mefistofele, who offers him ever more attractive adventures. As Faust dies, praying for salvation, heaven claims its victory over the Devil, who shouts his continuing defiance.
Music and Background
As originally planned, Mefistofele was a very long and very radical score, intended to fix Italian opera on what Boito thought should be its true path. But the devastating failure of the premiere caused him to subject the piece to massive revisions, scaling it down in every way and leaving something more conventional. A general response is that the music is uneven and doesn’t convincingly knit the piece into a whole, but it makes a strong vehicle for a good bass, and has been associated with some of the greatest bass voices of modern times – notably Chaliapin in the first years of this century.
Highlights
Faust’s ‘Dai campi, dai prati’ and Mefistofele’s ‘Son lo spirito’ dominate Act I. Margherita’s lament ‘L’altra notte’ makes a poignant opening to Act III, whose Prison Scene is arguably the best-written section of the whole score.
Did You Know?
Recommended Recording
Nicolai Ghiaurov, Luciano Pavarotti, Mirella Freni, Montserrat Caballé, National Philharmonic Orchestra/Oliviero de Fabritiis. Decca 410 175-2. A hard-to-beat cast on good form, and the last recording Fabritiis made before he died in 1982.
(1833–87)
Prince Igor (1869–87)
The illegitimate son of a Russian prince, Alexander Borodin was one of the group of composers known as ‘The Mighty Handful’ or ‘The Five’ who were largely self-taught and combined their creative work with other careers. Borodin, who described music as ‘a pastime, a relaxation from more serious pursuits’, was an academic chemist; which explains why his one surviving opera, Prince Igor, remained incomplete at his death, despite seventeen years of intermittent work on the score. It was subsequently completed by Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov. Apart from Prince Igor, Borodin’s best-known compositions are his symphonies (two complete, one unfinished) and string quartets, whose tunes were ambushed and recycled into the 1950s musical Kismet.
FORM: Opera in a Prologue and four acts; in Russian
COMPOSER: Alexander Borodin (1833–87)
LIBRETTO: Alexander Borodin; after a sketch by Stasov
FIRST PERFORMANCE: St Petersburg, 4 November 1890
Principal Characters
Igor, Prince of Seversk
Prince Galitsky, his brother-in-law
Vladimir, Igor’s son by his first wife
Yaroslavna, Igor’s second wife
Khan Konchak, Polovtsian prince
Konchakovna, Khan Konchak’s daughter
Ovlur, a Christian Polovtsian soldier
Synopsis of the Plot
Setting: Putivl, a town in the Seversk region, and in the Polovtsian camp; 1185
PROLOGUE Igor is preparing to leave with his son, Vladimir, on a campaign against the pagan Polovtsian khans. He says a sorrowful farewell to his wife, Yaroslavna, and appoints Prince Galitsky to govern in his absence.
ACT I Yaroslavna misses Igor greatly, but Galitsky and his friends are enjoying themselves – even to the extent of kidnapping a young girl. Yaroslavna, coming to hear of this, argues fiercely with Galitsky and finally forces him to release the girl. After he leaves she receives bad news; Igor has been captured and the Polovtsians are marching on Putivl.
ACT II In the Polovtsian camp Konchakovna is looking forward to seeing the man she loves, Vladimir, who, like his father, has been captured. When he is brought in, under guard, they reaffirm their love for each other, unobserved by all except Ovlur, the Christian convert. Ovlur then offers to help Igor escape, but such a thing is against Igor’s code of honour and he refuses. Igor is well-treated by Konchak who tries to persuade him to become an ally; failing in this, Konchak offers him his freedom, in return for his promise not to fight the Polovtsians in