Organization

Singer

Bass

René Pape

Mefistofele

Tenor

Joseph Calleja

Faust

Soprano

Kristīne Opolais

Margherita

Contralto

Heike Grötzinger

Marta

Andrea Borghini

Wagner

Karine Babajanyan

Elena

Rachael Wilson

Pantalis

Joshua Owen Mills

Nereo

Conductor

Omer Meir Wellber

Stage director

Roland Schwab

Set designer

Piero Vinciguerra

Costume designer

Renée Listerdal

Lighting designer

Michael Bauer

Chorus master

Sören Eckhoff

Stellario Fagone

Bayerische Staatsoper

Orchestra

Bayerisches Staatsorchester

Others

Bayerischer Staatsopernchor

Italian

Mefistofele -  (Mephistopheles)

Munich

Germany

Nationaltheater

Best known today as the librettist of Verdi's last Shakespearean masterpieces, Otello and Falstaff, the multi-talented Arrigo Boito was also a journalist, poet and an outstanding composer himself. His first (and only completed) opera, Mefistofele, is very extensive and took about 20 years to complete. His first (and only completed) opera, Mefistofele, is said to encompass no less than the entirety of Goethe's great poetic drama Faust (Parts I and II).

Unlike Gounod's better-known version, Boito's opera focuses not only on the human tragedy of Faust's callous seduction of the innocent Margherita (Goethe's Gretchen), but also on the more metaphysical conflict between good and evil in the original poem. So at the beginning we see Mefistofele betting with God that he can lead the ancient philosopher Faust into the ways of sin, while at the end we see the devil's defeat when the disillusioned and dying Faust finally has a glimpse of happiness and is redeemed.

Director Roland Schwab (a protégé of the legendary Ruth Berghaus), making his Bavarian State Opera debut with the Munich premiere of Boito's masterpiece, plays devil's advocate by setting the opera in what appears to be a garbage-strewn nightclub, which then turns transformed into a geriatric infirmary, with a drunken detour to the Munich Oktoberfest. So is hell just hell on earth that passes for the modern world?

René Pape sings "with clear, powerful bass lines" (Deutschlandradio Kultur) and plays Mefistofele as the sardonic leader of a satanic cult. As Faust, his slave, Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja "strums his high notes with tremendous force" (Financial Times). Latvian soprano Kristine Opolais' Margherita "shines with subtle Grace Kelly elegance" (Opera Today), while Armenian soprano Karine Babajanyan as Elena - the legendary Helen of Troy - "shines with heroic high notes" (Süddeutsche Zeitung). Finally, in the orchestra pit, the Israeli conductor Omer Meir Wellber "holds together all the musical textures with admirable control" (BR Klassik).

Photos