Opera Scotland

Faust 1929Covent Garden Opera

Read more about the opera Faust

Faust was still a hugely popular piece, and the Carl Rosa company had brought it to the central belt cities in the spring.  here the Covent Garden Opera also played it in Aberdeen, with an excellent cast.

The Edinburgh press reviewed the performance at the first Saturday evening:

The Scotsman, Monday, 28 October 1929,  (p8):

'It was no small pleasure to see so well-worn an opera as Faust given with such freshness, precision, and attention to detail as was the case on Saturday night.  Mr Edward Leer made a romantic figure as Faust,  which is more than can be said of many Fausts,  and his singing was refreshingly broad and romantic in treatment.

'Great praise, also, is due to the Marguerite of Miss Noël Eadie,  which was not at all the conventional prima donna Marguerite.  In singing and acting alike,  there was presented the unsophisticated girl of the poem.  It was a most artistic interpretation.'

'After his Don Basilio of Monday night,  the Mephistopheles of Mr Fernando Autori had been awaited with considerable interest.  Both vocally and dramatically it was highly remarkable.  Mr Autori has a wonderful bass voice, and his singing of the ''Calf of Gold'' song was an object lesson in how to keep that familiar lyric free of banality.  His powerful voice was of great effect in the many concerted numbers,  while his acting was full of well-considered,  significant but always unobtrusive detail.  Nothing so fine as his make-up for the part has been seen in Edinburgh.  The conventional Mephistopheles is merely grotesque,  that of Saturday night was essentially evil in suggestion.

'Mr Percy Heming's Valentine was a fine rendering of a rôle which not every artist succeeds in making convincing.   The music of the part was sung with great effect, and the death scene was an impressive piece of dramatic art.  Miss Doris Lemon's Siebel was genuinely boyish, and the music of the rôle was sung with fine charm.

'Miss Gladys Parr's Marth was an excellent piece of comedy,  and the rich quality of her voice was very effective in the in the ensemble in the garden scene.  Mr Martin Quinn was a good Wagner.

'The staging of the opera was very artistic and the return of the soldiers was an admirable stage picture.  Both Madame Butterfly and Faust were conducted by mr Goossens,  who is to be complimented on the smoothness and finish of the two performances.'