Season Opening at Les Arts with Gounod’s Faust

Author:

by Blanca Vázquez

On October 15, the final performance of Charles Gounod’s Faust was staged in Valencia. With this production, the Palau de les Arts opens the season celebrating the 20th anniversary of its inauguration.

Charles Gounod, originally a composer of sacred music, had little success with his first operas. In 1856, he persuaded the playwright Jules Barbier and his collaborator Michel Carré to write the libretto for what would become one of the most celebrated works of his career. Léon Carvalho, director of the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris, agreed to stage the opera. The work was already halfway completed when the Théâtre Porte-Saint-Martin presented a large-scale production of the melodrama Faust. Carvalho then withdrew his agreement to stage Gounod’s opera and offered him a replacement project based on Molière’s Le Médecin malgré lui. Following the considerable success of that opera (premiered on January 15, 1858) and the poor reception of the Porte-Saint-Martin Faust, Gounod decided to complete his own Faust. The score was finished on July 1, 1858, and premiered on March 19, 1859, at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris.

The evening of October 15, 2025, began with a message from the current general director, Jorge Culla, regarding the general strike called in Spain that day, which particularly affected the staging aspects, preventing the opera from being enjoyed in its full splendor. Even so, it was still possible to appreciate the outstanding work of stage director Johannes Erath and the technical team accompanying him in this circus-inspired production: set designer Heike Scheele, lighting designer Fabio Antoni, costume designer Gesine Völlm, and video designer Bibi Abel, who was probably the most affected, since the planned projections could not be shown.

The protagonist, performed on this occasion by the young tenor Iván Ayón-Rivas, offered a bold interpretation of Faust—not only due to the complexity of the character, but also because of the vocal difficulty of the role and its eminently lyrical line. The tenor’s magnificent vocal projection was also evident, suggesting a promising future in the lyrical repertoire. The Spanish soprano Ruth Iniesta, one of the most renowned singers on the national scene, took on a more lyrical role than usual this time. In her portrayal of Marguerite, she stood out for her technical mastery and musicality, especially in the climaxes and the delicacy of her pianissimos.

In the role of Méphistophélès, Alex Esposito did not leave the audience indifferent. With a mature voice, rich in harmonics and great power, he embodied the part with authority and intensity. Warm recognition is also due to Florian Sempey, who played Valentin with great expressiveness.

Conductor Lorenzo Viotti, making his debut at the Valencian venue, offered the audience a highly contrasted and intense interpretation, drawing from the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana and the Cor de la Generalitat Valenciana an exquisite result.

Ekaterine Buachidze, as Siébel, was very convincing in her role and stood out for the velvety color of her voice. Gemma Coma-Alabert delivered an excellent vocal and dramatic performance as Dame Marthe. Special mention should also go to Bryan Sala, in the role of Wagner and a member of the Centre de Perfeccionament de Les Arts, who displayed great interpretative skill.

Alice Lechner

Alice Lechner comes from a music-loving family. Her first encounter with the opera universe was at the tender age of six. The grandeur of the stage productions and costumes, the backstage chatter, and last, but definitely not least, the music left her in awe, beginning with Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The overall feeling that opera awakens in anyone who gets a glimpse into this part of artistic eternity, that each and every day passes the test of time, was what drew her to stay and be a part of this world. The Opera House of Brașov became her second home, and the people who worked there were her second family.

Since then, Alice has devoted her spare time to maximising her musical knowledge through instrumental studies, studying both piano and violin for a short time. In the following years, her number one passion stepped out of the limelight and graciously gave way to Law Studies.
Since 2018 she has been studying Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.

Her passion for opera, even if it is no longer her top professional priority in terms of career, it has most definitely become her priority during her free time. Wanting to experience the best of both worlds and extend her musical horizons, she regularly attends opera performances throughout Romania and abroad.
With OPERA Charm Magazine, Alice aims to nurture her creative side to help it flourish and bloom and to discover, alongside the magazine’s readers, the fascinatingly complex world of opera.

Currently, she is an LL.M. in Business Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.

Oana Zamfir

Oana Zamfir is a second year MA student at the “George Enescu” National University of Arts, at the Department of Musicology.

She studied violin for 12 years at the “Stefan Luchian” High School of Art in Botosani, later focusing on the theoretical aspects of music. In 2019 she completed her bachelor studies in Musicology as a student of the National Academy of Music “Gheorghe Dima” in Cluj-Napoca. Her research during 2018-2019 brought to the forefront elements of the archaic ritual within works of composers who activated during the communist period, giving her the opportunity to start a research internship at the “Carl von Ossietzky” University in Germany. In this context, she recorded conversations with members of the Sophie Drinker Institute in Bremen, and had access to documents directly from the Myriam Marbé archive.

Since 2019 she has been a teacher of Music Education and Theoretical Music Studies, making full use of interactive methods in the musical training of students and working, at the same time, with the children’s choir founded in the first year of her activity.

Her interests include pursuing a degree in interior design in 2020.

Alexandru Suciu

Alexandru Suciu inherited his passion for art growing up in a family of several generations of musicians. He began his musical studies at the “Augustin Bena” School of Music in Cluj, where he studied piano and guitar. Even though his main study direction was philological, his passion for music prevailed. He began his academical journey at the Faculty of Letters of the “Babeș-Bolyai” University, studying Comparative literature and English. He continued by studying Opera Singing at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy. He also graduated the Musical Education section, followed by Artistic Directing at the Musical Performing Arts department.

His multidisciplinary education opened the doors towards research, which is seen both through his participation in national and international conferences and symposia, such as the Salzburg Easter School PhD-forum, organized by the Salzburg Universität or the Silesian Meeting of Young Scholars, organized by the Institute of English at the University of Silesia, as well as the collaboration with Opera Charm Magazine.

During his student years, he won several prizes, including the Grand Prize at the “Paul Constantinescu” National Musical Interpretation Competition, the Romanian Composers and Musicologists’ Union Prize at the same competition, the First Prize and the Schubert Prize at the “Ada Ulubeanu” Competition.

He further developed his artistic skills by specializing in courses and masterclasses held by personalities such as Vittorio Terranova, Giuseppe Sabbatini, Marian Pop, Ines Salazar, Riccardo Zanellato, Paolo Bosisio, Valentina Farcaș and Manuel Lange in contexts such as the Internationale Sommerakademie für Operngesang Deutschlandsberg, Corso Internazionale di Canto Lirico I.M.C. Licata or the Europäische Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst Montepulciano. Besides his activity on-stage, he currently teaches Opera Singing Didactics, and Pedagogical Practice within the Department for Teacher Education and Training at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy.

Cristina Fieraru

Cristina is a 24 year-old Romanian soprano & a student at the National University of Music Bucharest, where she pursues the MA program in Vocal Performance.

She made her debut in Pamina from “Die Zauberflöte” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at only 19 years old at the Bucharest National Opera House, as a member of the Ludovic Spiess Experimental Opera Studio. Over the years she made her debut in roles such as Contessa d’Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Mimì & Musetta (La Bohème), Alice Ford (Falstaff), Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte) in her university’s opera productions.
Her passion and experience extends in the field of choral music, too.

She has been part of our dream team since the fall of 2021. For a good period of time she took care of OPERA Charm’s social media and took you on the monthly journey through the history of opera through our Legends rubric – and a few times through the Theaters around the World rubric.

Her little soul rubric – from 2021 to present – is definitely the Conductors of the Future, where, every month, she gives you the chance to meet a young star of the world of conducting and, of course, to find out what’s the most charming feature of opera in these artists’ views.

BIANCA L. NICA

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua. At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur