[ConorMacNessa]

Somewhat serendipitously. I downloaded La Damnation de Faust, a work I had the pleasure to sing as a Tenor Chorister in the Oratorio Society of Washington a couple of decades ago under the baton of the late Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos. A most impressive conductor - he conducted without a score.


"Dia shábháil ar fad anseo!"

Genuflectimus non ad principem sed ad Principem Pacis!

Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. (Isaiah 49:1 KJV)

[Publius]

Berlioz set that as a cantata, not an opera, because the stagecraft of the era couldn't handle the quick cuts that he executes. The world had to wait for the movies to make that happen.

The scene near the end where the horseman Faust runs over the people praying at the shrine is classic.