Gounod's "Faust" at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center

I’d never been to the opera before, so I apologize in advance if I sound like an idiot.

I’ve always been curious about it since I generally enjoy the fine arts (as opposed to the coarse arts), but I’ve never had a chance to go.

Enter my upstairs neighbor Heather, who offered my girlfriend Erica and I free tickets see Charles Francois Gounod’s “Faust” at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center.

Since I was going to my first opera, I threw on a tie and Erica and I headed out. We barely made it to our seats after coming in from Orlando earlier in the day (it was SO dark in the theatre that we couldn’t even see the person sitting next to us — who was Heather!) and we sat down just as the show started.

I was familiar with the story of Faust — depressed, suicidal Dr. Faust (Vale Rideout) sells his soul to the devil (Mark Doss) in exchange for youth, vitality and the chance to hook up with the beautiful Marguerite (Rachel Watkins) — so I figured I’d be able to follow the story, despite the fact that it would be sung in a different language.

Immediately I was hit by two surprises: 1.) the show was in French (not German like I assumed) so I was able to understand 15% of what was said thanks to my intermediate French classes in college. 2.) There were supertitles available above the stage that translated everything that was sung into English. I honestly did NOT know that would be there (told you I was an idiot).

The staging of the production was relatively simple, but very impressive. The set design was well done, pretty and unintrusive (and deceptively basic), and the use of pyrotechnics early on (that Mephistopheles DOES like to make a grand entrance) fit in well with the story. Most of all, I was impressed by the subtle uses of lighting to convey tone shifts in different scenes.

The cast was mostly impressive too. As is usually the case whenever the devil is a character in a production (it’s an undeniably juicy role) Mephistopheles was the real star and Doss stole the show. He was the unquestioned crowd-pleaser and definitely got the devil’s charismatic side across (though I would’ve liked to have seen a bit more of the scary side).

Though the character is a little underdeveloped, Watkins did a nice job of showing us the character’s arc from innocent, hesitant young girl to a woman driven completely mad.

Ironically enough, I thought Rideout was the least effective of the three leads as the title character. I thought he was fantastic when he played Dr. Faust at an advanced age at the start, but as soon as he became a young man, he just wasn’t as interesting. His stage presence and singing (I detected a bum note or two) were a bit lacking. I guess I liked him a lot more as a suicidal old man.

Among the supporting cast, I liked Guido LeBron as Valentine, Marguerite’s pious brother, and Cheri Rose Katz in a brief turn as Marguerite’s neighbor (who is a little past her prime).

Unfortunately, there were also some problems with the story (I still have no idea why ***SPOILER ALERT*** Faust abandons Marguerite ***END OF SPOILER ALERT***) and the tone of the production.

The fact that Erica turned to me at the end and asked me if I thought it was a comedy or a tragedy — and I couldn’t give her a firm answer — is not really good. (My final verdict is that it’s a tragedy with comedic elements — I think.) Still, the biggest problem for me is that the ending (which I won’t spoil here) is painfully eye-roll inducing.

Despite all that, I thoroughly enjoyed my first night (ok, it was 2 p.m.) at the opera and I’m definitely looking forward to doing it again sometime — especially if someone wants to give me awesome orchestra seats for free again.

Gounod’s “Faust”...B