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Stephen Smoliar, Gretchen to Faust
San Francisco Examiner
Last night in Davies Symphony Hall the Russian National Orchestra (RNO) returned to perform the first of two concerts in the Great Performers Series organized by the San Francisco Symphony (SFS). Their conductor was Founder and Artistic Director Mikhail Pletnev....
The intermission was followed by the appearance of soprano Lisa Delan singing the world premiere of Gordon Getty's "Gretchen to Faust." It is not often that a visiting ensemble brings a world premiere to its program, but this provided an opportunity for RNO to introduce the music in the composer's presence without the composer having to travel.
The work was inspired by Faust's encounter with the imprisoned Gretchen in the final scene of the first part of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust. Rather than translate the German, Getty reconceived an English text by turning Gretchen into a ghost, giving Faust instructions on the burial of not only her own body but those of the other members of her family. While the text sheet presented the words as a blank-verse poem, Delan's delivery reflected Getty's talent for expressing prose that emerged so vividly in his "Usher House" opera. (That prose was also a great relief from Goethe's persistent doggerel.) The piece was short (about five minutes in duration); and the musical language was modest. However, the dramatic impact made for a fascinating reflection on the traditional Faust legend.
Jeff Dunn, Gretchen to Faust
San Francisco Classical Voice
The six-minute setting for soprano and orchestra, adapted from Goethe by the composer, is a somber experience dedicated to the memory of Getty's troubled son Andrew, who died last year. Like the composer's opera Usher House, the piece shows Getty's increasing mastery of and sensitivity to text. Lisa Delan was the fine soloist in an arioso with a wavering orchestral accompaniment that sounded simultaneously gentle and jagged. I found it to be one of Getty's best works.