DVD: Busoni's "Doktor Faust", with Thomas Hampson

[barry guerrero]

Hi There,

I watched a pretty good DVD of Busoni's magnum opus, "Doktor Faust", with Hampson in the title role. It was done at the Zurich Opera, which means a tinge of Euro-trash here and there. For example, the three students who come to present "the book" (of wisdom) to Faust, are dressed up sort of like the Blues Brothers (hey, at least they weren't Groucho, Chico, and Harpo). But I've finally figured out what it was that Mahler and Busoni had in common (they greatly liked each other, but composed in entirely different musical languages): both of them are big gong-heads!

We know that Mahler has gong strokes all over the place, especially in the "Resurrection" symphony, as well as "Der Abschied" from "DLvdE". There are several pretty spectacular tam-tam smashes in Doktor Faust, especially near the end of Faust's long-winded soliloquie  that concludes the opera. I don't think that this is a particularly great work of art (a tad too predictable, I feel), but it is interesting. Anyway, the last item that Mahler ever conducted was Busoni's " Berceuse Elegiaque ", which ends with a quiet, solo tam-tam stroke.