This is a collaboration between Teatro Nacional de São Carlos and Teatro São Luiz. The Jardim Aberto series brings together a sequence of chamber music concerts, performed by small groups of musicians from the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra and the Choir of the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos.
The bill follows on from themes explored in the previous season, inviting audiences to discover works related to War, João Domingos Bomtempo, Luís de Camões, Women Composers and the Faustus myth.
With free entry, the concerts present an opportunity to bring solo musicians and the public closer in a particularly engaging atmosphere, in the welcoming Sala Bernardo Sassetti of Teatro São Luiz.
Goethe’s masterpiece Faust had a profound impact on European culture, inspiring several generations of musicians, poets and thinkers. A symbol of nineteenth-century modernity, Faust depicts the relentless pursuit of knowledge and experimentation in the world, the confrontation between good and evil, and the possibility of redemption through transcendence.
This chamber concert traces the essential plot of the tragic poem through a succession of vocal pieces that evoke its central characters and episodes. From the Prologue in Heaven, where Mephistopheles bets God on the fate of Faust’s soul, to the Chorus Mysticus that closes the second part with the promise of redemption, the programme musically translates the dramatic and philosophical intensity of this narrative. The scenes in the tavern, the pact with the devil, Faust’s reflections and Marguerite’s tormented purity find expression in the lyrical worlds of composers such as Schubert, Beethoven, Verdi, Schumann, Loewe, Spohr, Busoni, Lassen, Zelter and Bettina von Arnim.
The diversity of styles – from German Romanticism to Italian lyricism, from nascent nationalism to late symbolism – bears witness to the universality of Faustian inspiration and its persistence as a founding myth of modernity.
Performed by Carolina Raposo, Raquel Alão, Ana Ferro and João Rodrigues, with João Paulo Santos on piano, this concert is part of the Jardim Aberto cycle, a collaboration between the São Carlos National Theatre and São Luiz in celebration of the Faustian myth.
PROLOGUE IN HEAVEN
EDUARD LASSEN
Prolog im Himmel
THE TAVERN
FERRUCCIO BUSONI
Lied des Brander
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Aus Goethes Faust
FERRUCCIO BUSONI
Lied des Mephistopheles
MEFISTOPHELES
EDUARD LASSEN
Was machst du mir vor Liebchens Thür
FAUST
BETTINA VON ARNIM
O schaudre nicht
MARGUERITE
CARL ZELTER
Es war ein König in Thule
EDUARD LASSEN
Es war ein König in Thule
LUDWIG SPOHR
Meine Ruh ist hin op. 25 N.º 3
CARL LOEWE
Meine Ruh ist hin Op. 9 H. III Nr. 2
GIUSEPPE VERDI (Luigi Balestri)
Perduta ho la pace
FRANZ SCHUBERT,
Gretchen am Spinnrade D. 118
GIUSEPPE VERDI (Luigi Balestri)
Deh, pietoso, oh Addolorata
CARL LOEWE
Scene aus Faust op. 9 H. IX N.º 1
LYNCEUS
ROBERT SCHUMANN
Lied Lynceus des Türmers op. 79 n.º 28
CHORUS MISTICUS
EDUARD LASSEN
Blicket auf! …Allez Vergängliche
