Mephistopheles -- San Francisco Opera Performance Review
Mephistopheles
San
Francisco Opera Performance
September
14, 2013
The title of this opera is Mephistopheles.
Mephistopheles is supposed to be the Devil. But this is not about Mephistopheles or the
nature of evil. Mephistopheles becomes
little more than a tour guide in this opera.
It seems to be about Faust more than it is about anything, the aging
scholar who trades his soul to the Devil.
But it is not clear what he traded it for or what either of them got in
the bargain. This opera is a series of
disconnected, incomplete vignettes that do not form a coherent narrative or portray
any characters with clarity, or depth.
It is a mediocre work by a mediocre mind. I don't understand why they even staged this. The person who wrote this, Arrigo
Bioto, does not understand evil. This
opera reflects a typical religious ascetic mentality that associates evil with
the body, sex, and especially women, who are the inspirers and the objects of
lust. It is a celebration of
conservatism, pessimism, asceticism, and archaic religious nonsense. This man is not a deep thinker, not
insightful, has no interesting ideas or perspective, and no psychological
sophistication. I have an extremely low
opinion of him as an intellect.
I wouldn't say a word against the performance, however. The imaginative staging, the singers, the
chorus, the dancers, the costumes, the lighting and sets, create a brilliant
spectacle that saves this lumbering monstrosity from becoming a total quagmire. Unfortunately, all of this splendid display
is in the service of an insipid concept.
If you can just sit there and watch it for its visual brilliance,
without thinking too much about what it means or asking yourself what it is all
about, you might like it. The nudity,
the strip tease, the simulated sex, the dangling penises, are all interesting
to watch. If you don't get much chance
to see naked human bodies you might be titillated, but this lurid sensuality does
not save the story line, and it is done with a lightheartedness that underlines
the shallowness of the whole performance.
It is cartoonish. These are
caricatures rather than characters. It
is not interesting, and it becomes increasingly ridiculous and repulsive as it
goes along.
The ending is extremely confusing and idiotic. Faust, after making a bargain to sell his
soul to the Devil, ends up going to heaven.
Margherita, his lover, whose mother he poisons and whose child is
drowned in the ocean is executed (ascetics always blame women for sexual misadventures
and punish them severely). Mephistopheles is just a footnote to all of
this. He is a kind of master of
ceremonies, but is never a principal in the action.
The nature of evil could be an interesting subject and the
Devil could be a fascinating character for dramatic portrayal. This
opera does not do justice to either of these topics. Someone should write a different opera on
this subject. This one should fall into deserved
oblivion. It is quite long and slow
moving. There are two long
intermissions. There is not enough
substance to make it worth sitting through.
This art form needs an upgrade.