Great Barrington — All the warning signs were there: Berkshire Opera Festival has, since 2016, been raising opera lovers’ hopes and fulfilling them, with one production after another surpassing its illustrious predecessors. Nevertheless, everyone in the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center on the evening of August 27 was blindsided by what they saw and heard, and Boston Symphony big-wigs were on hand to witness it.
It was the perfect storm: a classic score by Gounod, a libretto based on one of the most important works in German literature, a cast of brilliant young singers, brilliant direction, brilliant production design, brilliant choreography—brilliant everything. But if you want one word to sum up this production, it would be “smart.” It is one thing to find popular repertory and assemble world-class musicians and singers; it is another to make all the right creative choices in staging and direction as BOF has done.
At intermission, the Mahaiwe was a hive of frenzied whispering by wide-eyed patrons who were clearly flabbergasted by what they had just witnessed. These were experienced opera-goers who had seen past BOF productions and were savvy to the company’s capabilities (or at least they thought they were).
Have Maestro Brian Garman and Director Jonathon Loy outdone themselves? Hardly. Exceeding expectations is all in a day’s work for these guys, so maybe we should have known that BOF’s “Faust” would be this good.
In his review of opening night, theater critic J. Peter Bergman wrote that BOF’s production of “Faust” should be on everyone’s list, “even if you don’t like opera.” He is right, and if you are not already an opera lover, you could very well be one by the time you get to the end of this show, which closes on Friday, August 30. Tickets are available here.
