Web stream at WCRB

Boston Symphony Orchestra February 10, 2007 8:00 PM
Symphony Hall  Boston, MA

James Levine, conductor
Yvonne Naef, mezzo-soprano (Marguerite)
Paul Groves, tenor (Faust)
Cos van Dam, baritone (Méphistophélès)
Andrew Gangestad, bass (Brander)
 
 Tanglewood Festival Chorus
  John Oliver, conductor
 
 PALS Children’s Chorus
  Johanna Hill Simpson, founder and conductor emerita
 
BERLIOZ  La Damnation de Faust
 
Audio Concert Preview by Marc Mandel, BSO Director of Program Publications
Performance dates: February 8 – 10, 2007

The duration of this concert is approximately 2 hours.  
  
James Levine and the BSO are joined by an outstanding cast of singers, including the acclaimed Belgian baritone José van Dam as Mephistopheles, Swiss mezzo-soprano Yvonne Naef as Marguerite, and American tenor Paul Groves as Faust, in Berlioz’s magnificent La Damnation de Faust. Berlioz’s “dramatic legend” was the first major work to grapple with a large-scale setting of Goethe’s Faust. The composer had attempted a musical approach to Goethe’s great dramatic poem in his Eight Scenes from “Faust” in 1829 and laterused these pieces as a basis for the much larger Damnation written in 1846. He led the first complete performances in Berlin in June 1847. Like so many of his other works including Roméo et Juliette and Harold en Italie, La Damnation de Faust is a unique creation that falls outside of established genres.

  
 Listen to excerpts:
(MP3) – Berlioz, <i>La Damnation de Faust</i> – BSO/Munch  (MP3) – Berlioz, La Damnation de Faust – BSO/Munch
 

  
 Read the Program Notes:
(PDF) – Program Notes – Berlioz  (PDF) – Program Notes – Berlioz