Search - Charles Gounod, Thomas Beecham, Symphony Orchestra :: Faust: Gounod

Insipid English Faust

Laura Demilio | Pittsburgh, PA United States | 04/03/2006

(1 out of 5 stars)

"As a curio representing the "early electric" era of complete opera recordings of the late 1920's-early 1930's, this might merit some tepid interest. Otherwise, it is an abysmal rendering of a sentimental but beautiful old opera. How Sir Thomas Beecham was snared into conducting this silly relic in 1929 is incomprehensible. The singing is worse than mediocre; it resembles a parody of the type of operatic scenes depicted in early talkie movie musicals circa 1930. Robert Easton has got to be the most dreadful devil ever recorded, more or less talking his way in a flat drone through the part rather than really singing. The less said about the other two leads, Heddle Nash and Miriam Licette, the better. Beecham was much better served to conduct an authentic Faust, in French, with Geori Boue & cast in 1947. If you want a 1930 Faust - and there is an excellent one - get the French conducted by Henri Busser, and/or Beecham's later, postwar version."