A ghoulish but glittering dose of over-the-top thrills
Opera: Faust. By Charles Gounod. Cork Choral Society. The Everyman, Cork. Reviewed by Dick O’Riordan.
The opera Faust was French-born and is a distant relative of the German poet Goethe – but at its heart it is a true-blue piece of Victoriana, embracing all the melodramatic mushiness of that period (a deep fondness for diabolical happenings, with Old Nick seducing young virgins, being particularly popular).
As a result, Gounod’s most famous work (with the possible exception of his version of Ave Maria) perfectly ...
