Alfred Schnittke: Between Two Worlds festival brochure cover | London Philharmonic Orchestra

I’ve just returned from a semi-staged performance of a condensed version of Alfred Schnittke’s 1995 opera The History of D. Johann Faustus at the Royal Festival Hall as part of Vladimir Jurowski’s Schnittke festival ‘Between Two Worlds’ with the London Philharmonic Orchestra running from 15 November – 1 December 2009 and all I can say is WOW! It totally blew me away. This was contemporary opera which worked.

In contrast to other German adaptations of the Faust legend, Schnittke chose to set a medieval version of the story as opposed to Goethe’s more philisophically inclined version. I think this actually served to make the opera more effective in terms of its pertinence to modern audiences. The drama of the 16th century version translated wonderfully into the contemporary production (featuring laptops and mobile phones) which Jurowski staged. Granted, there were portions of the opera missing, but at no stage was I tempted to disengage from the drama on stage.

Schnittke really challenges the conception of traditional ‘opera’ here. As anyone who knows later Schnittke is aware of: polystylism is his middle name. There is an amazing Euro pop-song/karaoke scene and Act III features a foot-stomping tango section which underscores Faust’s descent into hell. The chorus passages were particularly striking (sung by the Moscow Conservatory Chamber Choir) and the orchestration (featuring no less than TWO electric guitars along with every other orchestral instrument imaginable!) was an aural feast to experience.

I cannot forget to mention the superb soloists: Stephen Richardson (Faust), Anna Larsson (Mephistophila) and Marco Lazzara (Mephistophiles). Schnittke ingeniously sets the voices for the two ‘faces’ of the devil; the female Mephistopila is sung by alto Larsson but in her lowest register, while the male Mephistophiles is sung by counter-tenor Lazzara in his highest. There is lots of play on gender in the costume department also, with Lazzara strolling onto the stage in Act II with his top covered in a traditional men’s suit and his lower half in black tights and 6-inch stiletto heels!

I simply MUST experience this opera (hopefully in a full production) again before I die.