Havergal BRIAN (1876-1972)
Faust (1955-56)
Peter Hoare (tenor) - Faust
David Soar (bass-baritone) - Mephistopheles
Allison Cook (soprano) - Gretchen
William Morgan (tenor) - Raphael
Robert Hayward (bass) - Gabriel
Elgan Llyr Thomas (tenor) - Michael
Simon Bailey (bass) - Der Herr [God], Bösergeist [Evil Spirit]
David Ireland (bass) - Erdgeist [Earth Spirit]
Katie Coventry (mezzo-soprano) - Schüler [Student]
Nicholas Lester (baritone) - Valentin
Clare Presland (mezzo-soprano) - Marthe
Claire Mitcher (soprano) - Stimme [Voice]
Iain Farrington (organ)/Chorus and Orchestra of English National Opera/Martyn Brabbins
rec. August 2019, Abbey Road, Studio 1, London (April 2021, organ and wind machine, St George’s Headstone, Harrow)
German libretto and English translation included
DUTTON EPOCH SACD 2CDLX7385 [76:55 + 58:25]
Back in 2015 I reviewed a CD release of what I believe was then, and still is, the only complete performance there has ever been of Havergal Brian’s opera The Tigers (1917-29). That recording was made under studio conditions for a BBC broadcast in 1983. Now Dutton Epoch offer us the chance to hear one of his four later operas, Faust, in a studio recording which is the only time the work has been performed in full.
Faust is a very different proposition to The Tigers in many ways. For a start, it’s sung in German. Furthermore, although The Tigers is described as a ’Burlesque opera in a prologue and three acts’ Faust is ‘A Tragedy in a Prologue and Four Acts’ [my italics]. What the works do have in common, though, are two important features: richly imagined and inventive orchestral scores and a libretto fashioned by the composer himself. In the case of Faust, this
is from Goethe’s original text: the libretto is based on Part One of Goethe’s tragedy.
Dutton’s exemplary documentation includes a very fine essay about the opera by the composer and Brian expert, John Pickard. In this review I shall be drawing heavily on those notes for background information about Faust.
Pickard quotes a letter from Brian to Ernest Newman, written in August 1955, in which the composer observes that his opera “omits much of what is known from the Gounod and Berlioz concoctions. My ‘concoction’ includes much that is unknown – the ‘Prolog im Himmel’ and the most cynical and humorous of the dialogue between the Schüler [student] and Mephistopheles.” From this you will infer that the content and structure of Brian’s Faust differ radically from what we experience in Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust (I make no comment on Gounod’s opera since I don’t know it well enough). I think these differences produce gains and losses. I think that, in general, Brian’s opera is tauter in construction than Berlioz’s take on the Faust legend – there is, for example, no dallying in Auerbach’s cellar. On the other hand, I miss in Brian’s libretto – and in his music – the lighter touch that Berlioz often produces. For example, I hear little tenderness in Brian’s portrayal of Gretchen; instead, he focuses strongly on her tragic desperation, first as she is wracked with guilt over the deaths of her brother and mother and then faces execution. I’m also intrigued by Brian’s use of the words “cynical and humorous”. It’s true that he’s referring specifically to the exchanges between Mephistopheles and the Student in Act 1, scene 2. Elsewhere in his essay, John Pickard has another quotation in which Brian refers to how funny this scene is. To be candid, I’m not sure he conveys this in his music – or that Goethe’s writing is especially funny. More seriously, though, I don’t find that in this opera we truly see the cynical, manipulative side of Mephistopheles in the way that Berlioz portrays the character. Other listeners may experience the humour and cynicism better than I do, of course.
The opera opens with the extensive ‘Prolog im Himmel’ during which God and Mephistopheles make their wager. This scene is essential to Brian’s conception of the drama as a whole – unlike Berlioz who rather plunges us into the action in medias res. Essential it may be, but I found this section of the opera to be rather heavy going. The tone is unrelievedly earnest and the long philosophising passages of libretto didn’t grip my intention. However, matters improve.
In Act I we meet the restless Faust who strikes his bargain with Mephistopheles. At the end of the Act comes the dialogue between Mephistopheles and the rather naïve, eager-to-please student, who mistakes him for Faust. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure I see that point of this scene: it rather holds up the action to no great dramatic purpose. In Act II Faust has his first encounter with Gretchen and is smitten. Through the agency of Mephistopheles, he obtains a casket of jewels to give her and then we observe Gretchen singing the ballad of the King of Thule – the ballad receives a much more dramatic treatment than the wistful air imparted to the story by Berlioz. At this point you have to change discs. My first thought was that this was a disruptive break: could not Dutton have squeezed the 4:58 of Act II, scene 4 onto the first SACD? On further acquaintance with the recording, however, I don’t think this is a fault. Scene 4 seems almost to be separate from the rest of Act II; it takes place some time after the other events in the Act, by which time Faust and Gretchen have become lovers. Furthermore, and slightly curiously, Brian directs that Act III should then begin attacca, which couldn’t happen if one has to change discs between Acts II and III. (John Pickard acknowledges that this is something of a flaw in the opera’s construction.)
Act III presents the episode in which Gretchen’s brother, Valentin, seeks to avenge her lost honour but, instead, is killed in a fight with Faust. Then, in arguably the dramatic pinnacle of the opera, scene 2 of this Act depicts Gretchen in the cathedral, desperately seeking absolution and tormented by the character of the Evil Spirit. In Act IV Faust prevails upon Mephistopheles to take him to the gaol where his beloved is awaiting execution. In an ardent scene the lovers are reunited – though Gretchen initially mistakes Faust for the executioner – she is redeemed and Faust vanishes with Mephistopheles. I have to say that I find the end of the opera unsatisfactorily abrupt. There is no apotheosis of the redeemed Gretchen. That’s fair enough, but Gretchen’s redemption almost passes unnoticed. A lone female voice tells Mephistopheles ‘Ist gerettet!’ (She is saved), in a moment that almost passes for nothing. Then Mephistopheles summons Faust in peremptory fashion and they vanish. All that remains is for the lone voice to call ‘Heinrich! Heinrich!’ and the opera comes to a rather brusque end.
That is the plot of Faust; what of the music? As I said, I find the Prologue rather hard going. What follows is much more engaging. Brian paints a convincing musical picture of Faust and his craving first for intellectual satisfaction and then for Gretchen. The music for the solo tenor is highly challenging, making even greater demands on the stamina and range of the singer than Berlioz does in his own Faust score. To my mind, Brian misses some elements in his characterisation of Mephistopheles, as I’ve indicated, but other facets come across successfully. It’s another huge role and one that commands our attention whenever the character is on stage – which is often. Gretchen has some intensely dramatic music, especially in Acts III and IV. All three principal roles have strong melodic foundations, as do the subsidiary roles. Noting the date of the opera, I had wondered if the music might be characterised by the terse, often angular style that makes the later symphonies hard nuts for me to crack. Such is not the case, though.
That’s true also of the orchestral score. I don’t know the precise orchestra forces for which Brian wrote but they are audibly substantial. That’s not to say that the orchestration is thick, though it is often very powerful. However, there are many passages where the scoring is subtle, nowhere more so than in the short, gossamer-light Prelude to Act II. The orchestral writing is almost consistently independent of the vocal parts but it teems with interest and invention. It is also highly contrapuntal. Huge demands are made on the orchestral players but the members of the ENO Orchestra rise handsomely to the challenge.
The singers are equally excellent. Peter Hoare is tireless in the title role. His ringing, strongly focused tenor seems to me to be ideally suited to this music and he puts over the dramatic demands of the role very well indeed. The tessitura is consistently demanding but Hoare never falters. David Soar is hugely impressive as Mephistopheles. His strong, firm voice is a commanding presence throughout. I don’t sense the craftily insinuating side of the character but that’s not a criticism of Soar; I don’t think that aspect of the character is written into the music. I’m not entirely sure that Allison Cook portrays Gretchen as a pure young girl when we first encounter her in Act II but, again, that’s not the prime facet that Brian brings out. What his principal soprano is called upon to do above all, is to portray Gretchen’s anguish and despair, both in the cathedral scene and later when she’s in prison. Here Ms Cook is entirely successful, I think, offering intense and highly committed singing. There isn’t a weak link among the subsidiary characters. These are much less prominent than the three principals around whom Brian and Goethe base the action. However, all the singers do well and I should single out especially the firm-voiced contributions of Simon Bailey in his dual roles as God and the Evil Spirit, and also Nicholas Lester as Gretchen’s brother, Valentin.
The ENO Chorus are limited to two appearances in Act III but on those occasions their presence is very important and they deliver the goods.
Presiding over this vast musical undertaking is conductor Martyn Brabbins. Though I have no yardstick against which to judge his conducting of the score I have the very firm impression that he is in total command. One would expect nothing less of a conductor who led the stunning live recording of the ‘Gothic’ Symphony (review). That was a formidable achievement; this, I believe, is another.
We auditioned part of this recording in the MusicWeb Listening Studio a little while ago. We were impressed by the recording then. Now that I’ve had chance to evaluate the whole opera, I retain my admiration for the work of the recording team, principally producer Alexander van Ingen and engineer Dexter Newman. Working under studio conditions, they’ve managed to convey both the detail and sweep of Brian’s complex orchestral score with realism and clarity while at the same time giving the appropriate amount of profile to the solo voices. This is an impressive achievement. I listened to the recording as SACDs but using the stereo layer and the results were excellent.
This is clearly an important release and Dutton deserve plaudits not just for making the recording but also for doing it full justice with comprehensive documentation. In a 67-page booklet they supply the full German libretto and English translation as well as a very good synopsis and a first-class essay by John Pickard.
Havergal Brian never heard a note of this opera performed. After his death, the music made little headway. John Pickard tells us that Sir Charles Mackerras led a BBC studio performance of the Prologue in 1979 and, in addition, I think I’m right in saying that a small amount of the orchestral score has made it on to CD. Otherwise, the entire score lay unperformed until this recording was made. Will it ever be staged? It must be doubtful. It’s even less likely that it will ever be recorded again but, arguably, there’s no need for that because Martyn Brabbins and his forces have made such a splendid version of it. No admirer of Brian’s music will need any encouragement from me to add this important release to their collection, but I give that encouragement nonetheless.
John Quinn
Previous review: Jonathan Woolf
