Occasionally presented as a fully-staged production but most often heard in concert without scenery or costumes, Hector Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust has led a dual existence as an opera and an oratorio, either way curiously fitting the composer's unusual description of the work as a légende dramatique . Conductor and Berlioz specialist John Nelson presents this Erato box set as a follow-up to his 2019 release of the Requiem (Grande Messe des morts) and his 2017 recording of the monumental Les Troyens, recorded in the ...
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Occasionally presented as a fully-staged production but most often heard in concert without scenery or costumes, Hector Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust has led a dual existence as an opera and an oratorio, either way curiously fitting the composer's unusual description of the work as a légende dramatique . Conductor and Berlioz specialist John Nelson presents this Erato box set as a follow-up to his 2019 release of the Requiem (Grande Messe des morts) and his 2017 recording of the monumental Les Troyens, recorded in the Salle Érasme, Strasbourg, where La Damnation de Faust was recorded in April 2019, with many of the same artists participating. Joyce DiDonato as Marguerite, Michael Spyres as Faust, and Nicolas Courjal as Méphistophélès will be familiar to listeners of Les Troyens, and the passion and energy they brought to that recording are vital to this performance. While there are certainly intensely dramatic episodes here, not least the hair-raising Pandaemonium scene, the most memorable...
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