Due to the present crisis, the Dutch National Opera’s planned season opening of Mefistofele could no longer go ahead. Instead, with a concept created by Lisenka Heijboer Castañon and Manoj Kamps, they created the alternative production ‘Faust [Working Title]’, which departs from the theme of Goethe's Faust, a prominent figure in Western culture, and explores the abundance of voices that are present in the world by involving new and recomposed material by a team of composers and arrangers, including Grace-Evangeline Mason’s reimagined aria ‘L’altra notte in fondo al mare’ from Boito’s Mefistofele, together to produce this new work. The thirst for knowledge, but also its limits, is one of the themes central to Faust. In these confusing times, in which science simultaneously wants to provide answers and raises doubts, this theme is more topical than ever.
Grace-Evangeline Mason’s reimagining of the famous ‘prison’ aria ‘L’altra notte in fondo al mare’ from Boito’s ‘Mefistofele’, commissioned by the Dutch National Opera for inclusion in the alternative production ‘FAUST [Working title]’ by Lisenka Heijboer Castañon and Manoj Kamps, explores this original material by recomposing it in an intimate and heartfelt way to create a new moment of delicate, perhaps almost private, transcendence. The arrangement aims to maintain the original vocal line from the piece by keeping it completely intact and yet, creates a new and imaginative sound-world surrounding it whilst simultaneously honouring the depths of feeling within the original aria. Working with atmosphere, narrative and texture, this music uses a limited instrumental accompaniment of just muted brass, strings, a small amount of percussion and a rather prolific celeste part to create a distinctively earnest moment in the production of ‘FAUST’ of tender simplicity. A fragment of the aria can be heard below, sung by Olga Busuioc:
“ Completely unique, captivating, eye- and ear-watching and to a great extent moving.”
“The opera ‘Faust (working title)’ is colourful and agile”
““Wonderful Faust with 12 composers at Dutch National Opera’ - ‘The result is a miraculously spectacular coupé, or more irreverently, an eighty-minute potpourri, which repeatedly surprises the listener”
“Margherita’s aria at the beginning of the third act. “L’altra notte” forms one of the key scenes in the resulting opera spectacular Faust [working title]. Olga Busuioc as Margherita sang about the plight of a person in a hopeless situation with touching intrusion. The young Goethe had witnessed the criminal trial of a 24-year-old sentenced to death in Frankfurt in 1771 and had processed these experiences in his Faust. “My stricken spirit flies like a sparrow from the woodland,” Busuioc sings while her hands mimic a bird with simple gestures. The incredible grief of the middle-class girl, who drowns her own child in order to escape social condemnation, is given a somewhat liberating lightness by this symbol.”
Dutch National Opera: “FAUST [working title] opens up the space of Dutch National Opera to other sounds, music and languages, and explores the abundance of voices that are present in the world. Together with inspiring composers, arrangers and musicians from different places, the team imagines new landscapes in the world of music theatre. With a concept created by Lisenka Heijboer Castañon, Manoj Kamps, Niels Nuijten, Antonio Cuenca Ruiz, Hendrik Walther, Janne Sterke and Akim Moiseenkov, this alternative production includes work in alphabetical order by: Meriç Artaç, Hector Berlioz, Arrigo Boito, Lili Boulanger, Lochlan Brown, Emmanuel Chabrier, Bruno Coulais, Julius Eastman, Charles Gounod, George Frederic Handel, Manoj Kamps, Ravi Kittappa, Reinbert de Leeuw, Lingbo Ma, Florian Magnus Maier, Gustav Mahler, Grace-Evangeline Mason, Martín Mayo, Marc Migó, Akim Moiseenkov, Vasile Nedea, Florence Price, Franz Schubert, serpentwithfeet, Thuthuka Sibisi, Chavela Vargas, Rick van Veldhuizen, Claude Vivier & Maretha van der Walt.'“
https://www.operaballet.nl/en/opera/2020-2021/show/faust
The sold-out production had seven performances throughout September 2020 to critical acclaim, and has been recorded for online viewing, which will be available on October 4th.
