Berlioz: La Damnation de Faust

The soloists in this 1962 live performance of Berlioz's hybrid symphony-opera-oratorio represent a brand of French singing that is seldom encountered in today's internationalized operatic climate. As a vulnerable yet ample Marguerite, Régine Crespin is in her finest form (and so is the English horn soloist) in the sublime "D'amour l'ardente flamme." Baritone Michel Roux's lightweight, supple voice reveals a deceptively charming and urbane side to Méphistophélès that plays against stereotype. As Faust, tenor André Turp takes a while to warm up, yet manages the role's taxing high notes with admirable heft. The glue that binds it all together, though, is the venerable Monteux, who, at 86, could still elicit miracles of orchestral balance, textural transparency, and deft transitions from his marvelous orchestra. The slightly distant miking conveys concert hall realism in markedly superior sound to previous issues of this Damnation, a work Monteux never recorded commercially. --Jed Distler