(Complete)
Eugène Delacroix, La course à l'abime (1839)
Faust ..............................................
Nicolaï Gedda
Marguerite
.................................... Régine
Crespin
Méphistophèles ................................
Ernest Blanc
Brander
............................................ Louis Morin
Choeurs et Orchestre Nationale de la RTF
Igor Markévitch,
cond.
Festival de Montreux, September 24, 1959
In its original form, la Damnation de Faust is a "dramatic legend"
for the concert stage. It was only in 1893 that Raoul Guinsburg, director of
the Monte Carlo opera, adapted it for the stage. Nowadays, it is presented in
both forms. This broadcast is of a concert version performed by the orchestra
and chorus of the French radio (Radio Télévision Française
- ORTF) at the Festival de Montreux in Switzerland.
The singers were possibly the best available at the time: each was
eminently suited to the role and all had the proper French style at the
fingertips. Gedda's career was reaching its peak; Crespin and Blanc had been
very successful at the Bayreuth Festival and were starting to be known outside
France.
Complete Libretto