Evening star., 1955-03-06
News of Music
Bostonions' 'Domnotion'
To Get Hearing in D. c.
By Doy Thorpe

OF the many laudable quail
ties of the Boston Symphony
Orchestra, none is more con-
spicuous in a season bringing
at least four world-famous Wis
iting orchestras to Constitution
Hall than the combination of
imagination, effort, and eX-
penSe that has gone into its
programs.
1t is certainly atypical of
our visitors to favor us with
out of the way music, yet the
production of Berlioz' La
Damnation de Faust" to be
heard this Thursday, is the
latest addition to what is be-
ginning to look like a cycle of
the major works of the French
composer.
With the orchestra, DR..
Charles Munich, its conductor,
is bringing the Harvard and
Radcliffe Glee Clubs and four
singers of high repute, Suzanne
Dance, Martial Singher, David
Poleri, and Donald Gramm.
Popular in All Of France
Faust" is not an opera but
Q dramatic legend" and per-
tormance on the opera stage
rather than in the concert hall
does not have the sanction of
the composer. Its tremendous
popularity in France-a popu-
larity so great that the work
has almost broken the class
barriers between "longhair"
and popular" music, much
as the Schubert Unfinished"
Symphony and the Tchaikov-
sky B fiat minor concerto have
in this country-haS been the
cause of the adaptation of the
piece for the stage, in which
form it is one of the main
stays of the Paris Opera.
Faust" is not suitable for
operate presentation. how
ever, for usually it is COM
pletely static work.
1t is, in effect, a musical
setting of 20 scenes from
Goethe's masterpiece, 8 of
which were originally Berlioz'
first published work. bearing
the title HUT Scenes de
Faust"
Music Far From Stotic
Musically, there is nothing
static about The Damnation
of Faust" AS today there is
scarcely a writer in English
not under the strong influence
of Joyce's Ulysses" although
in many cases it is the in
fluence of reaction, so in the
heyday of Continental and
English romanticism there
was hardly an artist not
fascinated by the unplumbable
depths and the spacious
breadths of the German poem.
Its antiquities were as tam
talizlng as its pictures of hu-
manity were realistic, and few
writer's have been as sue
cessful as Goethe in find
ing and appealing to what is
most nearly common to the
hearts of all.
No one worshipped Goethe's
Faust" with greater devotion
than Berlioz, although he
knew it only in translation
that of Gerard de Nerval. He
was not alone among musi-
clans to be attracted by the
play. In addition to the
operas by Spohr. Boito, Busoni
and Gounod, the overture by
Wagner, and the symphony by
List. there are many smaller
works that drew on the play
songs and ScenaS by Schubert,
an orchestral suite by Schu-
mann, and many other pieces
including projected but never
completed overture of Beetho-
ven.
FoithfuI to Spirit and Plot
Berlioz music sets only the
first part of Goethe's play, and
Is remarkably faithful to the
spirit and plot. except in the
startling particular that in
Goethe Faust never experiences
damnation-certainly not in
part one. 1t might be argued
that Faust was damned at the
moment he made a contract
with the devil-but in Goethe
he makes no contract, and the