July 27, 2009
After the epic lavishness of Turandot, Festival Opera isn’t looking to bowl you over with its upcoming production of Gounod’s Faust. But while the physical design of Faust takes the opposite tack from Puccini’s blockbuster, the end result promises to be just as impressive. Festival Opera’s production, conducted and directed by Artistic Director Michael Morgan, places the opera in a world of existential illusion, a modern take on
Brian Thorsettthe classic myth. “Our modern setting will begin with Faust as an old man living in a retirement facility,” says Morgan. “As a backdrop, we will use projections to show the effects of time on Faust’s surroundings, beginning with the wallpaper of his room, which will gradually transform into the vivid flowers of Marguerite’s garden and then decay. This happens over the course of the entire performance. As the garden decays, a spider web becomes superimposed on the flowers, symbolizing the trap set for Faust by Méphistophélès. This will be Festival Opera’s first use of large-scale projections, as well as employing this kind of visual symbolism, to tell a story through both sound and light. It will be like the way you experience a sunrise. You don’t notice each different gradation of light, but at some point you realize the sky is bright and the sun is up.”
