Gounod – Faust (Bernheim, Van Horn, Opera Bastille, Viotti) (320kbps .mp3)


Cursed by her brother, the previously virginal Marguerite is left pregnant, miserable, mad and seemingly beyond redemption by the ageing Faust who's made a devilish pact to exchange his soul for youth. All's well that ends well though, as Marguerite is borne up to heaven by a chorus of angels.

The second of Opera on 3's two French takes on the Faust legend is Charles Gounod's version based on Part 1 of Goethe's Faust. What has kept Gounod's 'Faust' as an operatic staple for the past 150 years is perhaps not the plausibility of its plot so much as its succession of showstoppers, including solo numbers (the famous Jewel Song among them), ensembles and choruses. It needs a starry cast which it receives in this recording made live at the Opéra Bastille, Paris, earlier this year. Acclaimed Albanian soprano Ermonela Jaho is the hapless Marguerite, let down by an unscrupulous trio: baritone Florian Sempey is Valentin, the brother no sister deserves, French lyric tenor Benjamin Bernheim plays the vile seducer of the title role and the appositely named US bass-baritone Christian Van Horn is the diabolical Méphistophélès.

Introduced by Tom Service in conversation with Flora Willson who helps put Gounod and his opera into French 19th-century cultural, political and musical context.


Faust.......Benjamin Bernheim (tenor)
Méphistophélès.......Christian Van Horn (bass-baritone)
Valentin.......Florian Sempey (baritone)
Wagner.......Christian Helmer (baritone)
Marguerite.......Ermonela Jaho (soprano)
Siébel.......Michèle Losier (mezzo-soprano)
Marthe Schwertlein.......Sylvie Brunet-Grupposo (mezzo-soprano)
Paris Opera Chorus & Orchestra
Lorenzo Viotti (conductor)

You can hear last week's Opera on 3, La Damnation de Faust by Berlioz, on BBC Sounds.
Image: © Monika Rittershaus