Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Faust

Stripped of its original superstar casting, Gounod’s grand opera provides entertainment but fails to cohere. 

Hot on the heels of their modern-day take on Salome, Heartbeat Opera returns with another economical but inventive staging of a classic. 

Amy Lane's scattered borrowings from Tim Burton to Stanley Kubrick fail to cohere in the Canadian Opera Company's new Faust.

Jack Furness turns Faust into an Oppenheimer-type scientist in a powerful, well-sung staging in Dublin's Gaiety Theatre. 

Adam Palka shines as the devil in this revival of Frank Castorf's multimedia staging that relocates the work to mid-20th century Paris, around the end of the Algerian War.

The real sensation of the evening was Alex Esposito – this time, Gounod's Faust should have been titled Méphistophélès...

Faust and Méphistophélès pal around like buddies in Castorf's multi-media staging, the devil here less diabolical and more anarchistic party-boy. 

The revival of David McVicar's production of Gounod's Faust provides spectacle and entertainment in spades, with strong performances from Ivan Magrì (Faust) and Teddy Tahu Rhodes (Méphistophélès).

A devilishly fun performance of Gounod's take on Goethe, saved when Mandy Fredrich flew in at short notice to take over the role of Marguerite. 

Despite a great cast led by Marina Rebeka, La Fura dels Baus's unambitious approach to the myth of Faust and Dan Ettinger's noisy conducting prevent a brighter season opening at the Teatro Real.

Auguin conducted as if he really believes in this evergreen work, which was wonderful to hear in the composer’s rather overlooked anniversary year.

Chicago's new Faust is a quest for youth but also a reflection on insipiration, fabrication and manipulation. 

Plasson shows all his experience; Lavaudant surprises and delights with his direction; a strong cast sing their hearts out. Who can ask for more?

Dorset Opera's second opera of their season saw a fiendishly good performance from Mark S Doss as Méphistophélès supported by a strong cast in Christopher Cowell's economical production.

A thrilling new staging of Gounod's opera from the team that brought Bayreuth its current Ring, with musical rewards to match.

Bruno Ravella’s revival of David McVicar’s production of Faust, doing the rounds of Australia’s major opera companies, is currently inspiring Adelaidians with masterful performances by State Opera of South Australia.

Stefano Poda’s deeply intellectual mis-en-scene immersed the bourgeois love affair between Marguerite and Faust in an abstract and transcendental tangle of philosophical, existential and liturgical motifs. However, an overflowing symbolism sounded sometimes academic, but the visual effects were suggestive if not properly enchanting.

The devil may not get all the best tunes in Gounod’s Faust, but Gábor Bretz certainly stole the show in this new production at Hungarian State Opera. 

David McVicar's production of Faust enjoys one of the strongest overall performances of Opera Australia in recent times.

Gounod's Faust returns after 45 years to the National Dutch Opera, and this new production directed by Catalan theatre company La Fura dels Baus, lead by a fine cast and conducted by Marc Minkowski is nothing short of spectacular.

Gounod’s evergreen Faust is the Consul General of France's “Le French May” offering, enjoyable despite its blemishes. 

The set for this Faust is a series of blank screens, which slide about quickly and frequently, tall canvases for constantly changing images provided by Berlin-based video artist Lillevan.

When, in 1859, Gounod’s Faust premiered in Paris, it got an icy cold reception. In fact, shocking as it may sound to anyone even slightly familiar with this opera’s glorious arias, breathtaking duets and melodious ensembles, it got rejected by Paris Opera on the grounds of not being sufficiently “showy”.

Read our review of Des McAnuff's production of Faust by Gounod, in its 2011 broadcast from the Met Opera in New York.

In this Royal Opera production of Gounod's Faust, there's no question about who's in charge. Not only does the devil get all the best lines, but he bosses the show from beginning to end. Clad in feathered hat, long curly wig and reminiscent of the Laughing Cavalier, René Pape plays Mephistopheles quite superbly, alternating between mercurial bouffe comic lines and extreme sardonic nastiness.

For a long period, Charles Gounod's Faust was one of the most frequently performed operas, its popularity due to a lusciously romantic score which contains a series of showstopping set-piece arias, many of which have found their way into popular culture (to give just one example, the Jewel Song in Act III has a starring role in the Tintin story The Castafiore Emerald).

Une mise en scène ingénieuse et subtile signée Denis Podalydès du « théâtre total » de cette version originale de Faust, avec une distribution emmenée par un Jérôme Boutillier irrésistible.

Si la mise en scène de Tobias Kratzer n'est pas dépourvue d'incohérences, elle réserve tout de même de grands moments de spectacle. Et la distribution tient son rang, emmenée par un grand Pene Pati.

Eine temporeiche Inszenierung und eine starke Besetzung – Gounods Faust war noch nie so kurzweilig. Chapeau! 

Während die Musik unter der Leitung von François-Xavier Roth überzeugt, mag die Inszenierung Gounods Urfaust von nicht ganz zünden.

Un segundo reparto muy solvente encabezado por Ismael Jordi dieron vida a la propuesta escénica de Alex Ollé en una nueva producción en el Teatro Real de la ópera de Gounod Faust.

Dans une version inédite de l'opéra de Gounod, plateau vocal de haut vol et orchestre peu inspiré ont peiné à s'accorder.

Diana Damrau a fait vibrer l'Opéra de Marseille lors d'un récital qui restera dans les anales de l'institution marseillaise. 

Viel Wirbeln und Drehen in Reinhard von der Thannens Salzburger Faust-Inszenierung: Sein weißes Bühnenbild verschmilzt mit den nuancenreichen Orchesterklängen unter der Leitung von Alejo Pérez. 

La production reprenait mise en scène, décors et costumes de la création toulousaine 2008-2009 amenée à l’époque par Michel Plasson et Nicolas Joel, et qui avait connu un succès certain, des Chorégies d’Orange à la ville rose. La part d’inconnue résidait surtout dans le plateau et l’individualité des voix.

Simone Young machte diese Faust-Vorstellung zu einem musikalisch ergreifenden Erlebnis.

De cette production, on ne gardera en mémoire que quelques belles émotions lyriques