Busoni – Doktor Faust
Henschel; Begley; Hollop; Jenis; Kerl; Fischer-Dieskau; l’Opéra National de Lyon; Kent Nagano
Erato 2564 64682-4
Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) was celebrated by his contemporaries as an astounding pianist and valued teacher but considered himself above all a composer. It was not until the 1980s however that his compositions began to attract the international attention they deserve. Busoni rightly considered his opera Doktor Faust as the summation of his life’s work. His interpretation of the Faust legend takes its inspiration not from Goethe but from the origins of this mythical figure in Medieval puppet plays. He wrote and published his own libretto in 1916 and devoted the remainder of his life to its composition. Sadly, he died just short of the completion of his masterpiece, which he entrusted to his student Philipp Jarnach to fulfill for the 1925 premiere.
In 1982 the musicologist Anthony Beaumont reconstructed two more scenes intended for the ending of the opera from previously unavailable sketches and this “complete” version was issued on the Erato label in 1988. The Erato firm was absorbed by Warner Music in 1992 and this important recording became unavailable. Happily, further corporate restructuring has brought it back to life in Warner’s new “Erato Opera Collection” launched in 2013. This reissue features the Opéra de Lyon production under the direction of Kent Nagano with Dietrich Henschel in the lead role, Kim Begley as Mephistopheles and Eva Jenis as the Duchess of Parma among others. Though the interpretations are immaculate and the sound is very fine the repackaging offers only a brief synopsis and no libretto is provided, though with some sleuthing an English translation of the Jarnach version can be located on the internet.
The incomparable Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau first made this work famous in a compelling 1970 recording conducted by Ferdinand Leitner with the Bavarian RSO on the Deutsche Grammophon label. Fischer-Dieskau (Henschel’s teacher from long ago) also appears in the cast of the Erato production, though his is merely a speaking role at this late point in his career. The landmark DG recording has also long been in limbo though I am happy to report it too has resurfaced in digital form on iTunes. Were it not for some major cuts to the score (not necessarily a bad thing) and the damage done by the woefully wobbly Hildegard Hillebrecht as the Duchess it would still stand as my preferred interpretation of this strangely beautiful drama.
The Beaumont additions are provided as fillers at the end of the third disc of the Erato set, with suggestions of programming the tracks to either avoid or include them clumsily sketched out, though there is no discussion of the history of the reconstruction in the documentation. Rather than ending with the melodramatic death of Faust in dismal E-flat minor the Beaumont version ends with his mystical redemption through reincarnation in a luminous C major. Take your pick then, though it seems to me that on the opera stage death wins every time. The Beaumont edition has evidently failed to catch on; the recent 2001 Metropolitan Opera and 2006 Zurich Opera productions revert to the 1925 Jarnach version. Both featured baritone Thomas Hampson in a temperamental interpretation of the title role, with the latter performance available as an ArtHaus DVD previously reviewed here by yours truly (March 2008).
