Patricia Racette divine in Guonod's "Faust" at San Francisco Opera; Relyea dandy as Mephistopheles

Faust/Patricia Racette as Marguerite/Photo: Cory Weaver

Guonod’s Faust at San Francisco Opera on Sunday afternoon made a good substitute for those who skipped church that morning, offering a good deal of mischief and mayhem set to church organ, torchlit and sparked by the chemistry of the cast with a demure and pious Patricia Racette as ingénue Marguerite and dandy demon of debauchery John Relyea as Mephistopheles. Faust means another humble triumph particularly for Patricia Racette with her girlish innocence and ultimate plain goodness of character even in madness as she plays Marguerite. Pat does pathos right.

Note she and John Relyea will perform at Stern Grove on July 4.

In the words of the woman seated behind me on the aisle midway at orchestra left, Patricia Racette! Cool!

Slideshow: Faust runs through July first

SF Opera presents Charles Francois Guonod's Faust with Secco, Racette, Relyea

Tenor Stefano Secco rounds out the trio. He effectively transforms before the eyes from crusty lonely professor to the spineless and misguided drunk with a peasant girl on each arm, getting what he paid for.

Small in stature physically next to Relyea, Secco makes a believable victim under the spell of Mephistopheles as he plays the empty, maleable and lonely intellectual with a sense of passivity. The lesson there would be not to put intellect and human arrogance above God and humility as it leaves one empty and vulnerable to temptation of the flesh. Noted.

To this end, the score and sets include moody church organ and sinister spirits dressed as monks with hoods hiding their faces if they had any, the darkness only lit by their torches. They seemed to glide like evil spirits, mercilessly circling Marguerite like spiritual wolves ready to pounce on her pale bared soul.

Director Jose Maria Condemi just seemed to bring out the essence of his performers’ souls with each character in the ensemble so clearly defined. Good deal. Plus you get goosebumps at the finale with each determined step up the stairway to Heaven. There’s a quiet confrontation and moment of decision in the caverns of incarceration just before the Heavens open up . . . less is more, prompting the audience to focus on the internal turmoil when a choice lasting for eternity is about to be made.

Benini conducted and one could see in the pit five basses, two celli and one large harp, a pit heavy on the big strings so you know pathos emanates bigtime. Effective church organ too.

Robert Perdziola designed the sets and Duane Schuler designed the lighting, which go from serene prayer garden in the light of day to torchlit public square to a weaver’s area with a real loom, to a shadowy and menacing chamber of horrors.

It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to

Whether Racette plays the forsaken unwed mother placed in a nunnery in Puccini’s Suor Angelica, the abandoned young mother of Puccini’s Butterfly or Tosca with her religious convictions intact in the face of a sadist, Racette puts up an effective fight to the death against the forces of male evil. Suicide by poison, suicide by hari kari sword, suicide by a lover’s leap . . . but not this time in Faust. Moreover Racette hosted the Met's live broadcast of Turandot. Princess/victim/avenger has a few questions for her audacious gentlemen suitors . . .

Generally suicides don’t go to Heaven but in Faust right after Racette’s mad scene the angels summon her and she slips through the fingers of Mephistopheles and the blood stained hands of her former lover Faust. Divine intervention. He collects from Faust instead but you get what you pay for I always say. So she retains her innocence, being a mere pawn of the Devil with no free will just a girls’ infatuation once again leading to the destruction of an unwed woman. Will we never learn?

Mephistopheles sings, tormenting with paradox,

Don’t open the door until there’s a ring on your finger.

If you like your bad boys, John Relyea plays an incorrigible, the dark humored and dandy Mephistopheles, the perfect foil with the height and solid build to impose his will. He would make the perfect Dappertutto or Scarpia in the tradition of New Orleanian Greer Grimsley or even a good Pinkerton. SEND.

However Relyea also hams it up as a self-indulgent womanizing jester who delights in taunting and leading the weak astray. He’s a joy to behold reveling in his own antics with a penchant for clever entrances and exits such as emerging and decending from the dark depths of a garden well like a snake in the grass. The goofy surprise entrances contrast perfectly with Mephistopheles’ penchant for fine suits and well groomed black hair. The entrances start in the first act in Faust’s laboratory, with the tenor Stefano Secco physically smaller and looking all the more susceptible to the tall dark and handsome dashing devil. In contrast Racette’s character is so demure she doesn’t even sing until the end of the act and the first words out of her mouth are a humble “I’m not lovely”.

Catherine Cook, Daniela Mack, Austin Kness, Brian Mulligan

Racette and Relyea have a great supporting cast so it’s fun to see Racette’s girlish sense of humor and indulgence shine, as it did in Il Trittico’s Gianni Schicchi where she’s a debutante wanting to get married.

Pat Racette and Paulo Gavanelli in Gianni Schicchi, third part of Puccini's triptych (Part Three)

"Il Trittico": "Suor Angelica's" Patricia Racette earns mercy for we women with no man (part two)

"Il Trittico's Il Tabarro" (the cloak) as sexy and savage as "Porgy & Bess" (Part One, with Pat Racette)

Met's LIVE HD broadcast of Turandot (Patricia Racette host)

For example Mephistopheles leaves Marguerite a casket of jewels and instantly she’s transformed into a girl playing dress up to impress a beau, excitedly adjusting her tiara and even bejeweling her guardian, inviting her to join in the fun. Catherine Cook played Marthe the good sport with an earthy warmth and maternal kindness.

Run!

Petite and dark haired Daniela Mack, a former Merolini like Racette, plays the spunky would-be young suitor Siebel in this French pants role. Daniela's Siebel gets several moments in the spotlight only to have her character race off stage like high energy boy running from trouble with the adults. Run! Last summer I ran into her boyfriend at Opera in the Park when he came to watch her. The glorious tenor Alek Shrader with a penchant for high spirits and romantic comedy.

This past winter Alek performed at an opera salon with Austin Kness, who plays Wagner in Faust. At the salon Austin sang the dark side of romantic comedy with Alek singing the lighter and brighter, Austin filling in for Mack who was working elsewhere.

Marguerite’s brother Valentin holds his own in this torrent of talent, played with understated dignity and bitterness by Brian Mulligan. He looks the part of a young and handsome brother with a soldier’s sense of family and common decency without being overbearing.

It takes a village: SF Choristers

Most of the French soldiers looked much older although the women choristers playing the village peasant women looked younger in their billowing skirts. During the colorful jester scene with Mephistopheles in the Renaissance jester silks, the chorus obligingly indulges in an orgy scene at the base of the carnival wagon. Below, Brian Mulligan as Valentin makes the bad man stop.

Faust/John Relyea as Mephistopheles/Photo: Cory Weaver

The Mephistophelesian public debauchery looked interesting but not titillating given the mature years of most of the chorus. This just didn’t look like Mardi Gras. Somebody has to die before a job with the SF chorus opens up and the present chorus is growing old together. Even if they sport ponytails the hair is still white. So while I was looking over the wonderful portraits of them in costume in the lobby, one woman remarked to me, do you see how old they are? Not one young one among them. So I would say perhaps you can pull this off in Rigoletto’s Carnival scene because everybody remains masked and in costume. La Fille du Regiment was funnier.

Faust has three performances remaining, Wednesday, June 23; Saturday, June 26; and closing Thursday, July first.

Tickets cost $15 to $360 with standing room at $10.

For more info: www.SFOpera.com

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