Acclaimed director Jack Furness makes his Irish National Opera (INO) debut this month with a new production of Faust for the Dublin Theatre Festival.
Playing at The Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, prize-winning American tenor Duke Kim features as young Faust, while rapidly-rising Irish soprano Jennifer Davis is Marguerite; and US baritone Nicholas Brownlee performs Méphistophélès.
Below, Jack Furness expands on the opera's central themes, bringing out the social conscience of Gounod’s opera, and the compassion shown for those affected by Faust’s influence and power.
Charles Gounod’s Faust is described as a moral tale for all ages, and one of the world’s most manipulative love stories. The mystery at the heart of it is, what it would mean to become young again?
I want a treasure that contains all of them: I want youth! (Faust, Act I)
When Méphistophélès grants Faust’s wish, transforming him into a young man, he doesn’t seem to act like an older person in a young man’s body. Instead, he becomes truly young, with all the recklessness entailed.
Faust’s journey is to be doomed to age a second time, as he discovers that actions have consequences, and some things can never be taken back.
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Watch: Meet the cast of INO's Faust
This concern with transformation, with our true nature, and with choice and consequence links Gounod’s Faust (1859-69) to The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) and The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891).
Ultimately, the idea seems to be that, rather than descending to hell, Faust’s choices lead him to create hell on earth.
I could not find outrage strong enough in the past for the sins of others; The day comes when one is without pity for one’s own. (Marguerite, Act IV)
What is striking about Charles Gounod’s version of Faust is its extraordinary compassion. This is particularly true of the central character, Marguerite, who is seduced, excluded by society, and ultimately driven to murder and madness.
So, while there is a Christian sense of charity and forgiveness towards the unfortunate, it also can be seen as a howl of rage against false piety, and the societal structures that allow figures like Marguerite to be exploited and victimised.
This societal critique finds its expression in the representation of class difference, and the resulting power differentials. It is worth noting that Charles Gounod was about a month younger than Karl Marx. When Marguerite is enchanted by the box of jewels in Act III, it is not about vanity; this is a young girl who lives in poverty encountering wealth beyond her wildest dreams.
Nothing! In vain I examine, in my burning vigil, Nature and the Creator. Not a single voice whispers in my ear a consoling word. (Faust, Act I)
Gounod’s Faust is concerned with a profound crisis of faith. This is clear in Faust’s first words, which reflect the doubts plaguing 19th-century men of science like Charles Darwin, whose scientific discoveries challenged their faith.
So too the inventor of dynamite, Alfred Nobel. On reading his own obituary when a newspaper accidentally published it, he was horrified by the reality of his life’s work and set up the Nobel Prizes in response.
This work, from the latter half of the nineteenth century, reflects a world where the certainties of old-world Christianity were under sustained philosophical, scientific, and industrial attack. It must be seen in the context of each character being touched by this crisis of faith, while living in a reality where Christianity is all-important.
Is it a charming dream that dazzles me, or am I awake? (Marguerite, Act III)
Intoxication is also a major preoccupation of the opera. Beginning as a desire for the intoxication of youth and pleasure, it grows into an examination of the limits of sanity. The idea of hallucination, intoxication, drunkenness, and madness prevails.
For me this connects to the basic existential and social core of the piece.
When I really think about it, I find it hard to say who is madder, Faust or Marguerite.
Faust is at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, until October 7th - find out more here.
