Was this the face that launch’d a thousand ships
And burnt the topless towers of Illium?
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.
So wrote Christopher Marlowe in his adaptation of Goethe’s Faust. The story is typically described as a tragedy: a tale of self-destruction. Faust abandons both faith and reason to chase a fleeting pleasure — lust.
At the Metropolitan Opera, Robert Carsen’s production of Arrigo Boito’s 1867 Mefistofele does justice to this great spiritual drama. As a composer, Boito’s only wrote one opera. He was primarily a writer: a librettist, poet and novelist. In Mefistofele music and words function like two sides of the same brain.
Christian Von Horn plays the title role, telling Playbill, “anytime you get to play the devil, you have a great opportunity to have fun.”
Though they’re certainly striking, the heavenly chorus isn’t much fun.
But fun — we soon realize — is temporary. Faust has his first with the virgin Margherita. Then with Helen of Troy. All while Mefistofele patiently waits to collect his soul. Five words save him.
“Stay, for you are beautiful.” He says to the heavenly chorus.
It was not the face of Helen that rendered him immortal. Rather, the face of God.