Fantasy Faust

John Osborn sings Gounod's famous title role in Liège

Marguerite’s apotheosis: John Osborn (foreground, Faust), Nino Machaidze (Marguerite), Erwin Schrott (Méphistophélès) Picture © J. Berger/ORW-Liège

An image of Gounod in heaven, seated behind the towering figure of Wagner, with Rossini standing to their left, looks down on the audience from the painted ceiling of Liège’s beautiful Opéra Royal de Wallonie. Faust and Marguerite walk arm-in-arm a few paces behind the trio of composers.

Wagner remains one of the giants of 19^th century opera andRossini’s influence increases every year - but the painting commemorates Gounod’s status up until the early 20th Century as the most popular opera composer of his day. How true is that now?

Faust, his best-known work, was last staged in Liège in 2018 - not so long ago for a company staging around eight new opera productions a year. The Opéra Royal de Wallonie is the first of four prominent European companies to stage Faust anew in the 2025/26 season - with Valencia, the Bavarian State Opera and La Scala still to come.

Each will have asked the same question: should they revert to Gounod’s original 1859 version with spoken dialogue, as the Opéra-Comique in Paris did last season, following the example of the most recent recording starring Benjamin Bernheim and Véronique Gens (Palazetto Bru Zane, 2019)? That edition of the score reveals a snappier, theatrically lighter-on-its-feet Faust that opera companies would do well to adopt if they can cast it with singers who speak good French. Or should they play safe and stick with the standard version of Faust, performed at the Opéra de Paris from 1869? This incorporated various revisions and additions to the original text, including a ballet, an aria for Valentin and sung recitatives instead of the spoken links.