Heaven, Hell & Context

Did you catch Eugene Symphony’s performance of The Damnation of Faust the other evening? It was, I can’t resist saying, one Hell of a show, and if you weren’t there you should have been.

First, the basics: The symphony teamed up with the University of Oregon’s John Park and Harmonic Laboratory to put on the entire two-hour Hector Berlioz oratorio — that’s like an opera with no sets, costumes or staging — with a full-on light show inside the Hult Center’s Silva Concert Hall.

To make sure the elaborate video projections could be fully seen and enjoyed, the orchestra played under much-dimmed lighting, making the spacious 2,500-seat Silva feel wonderfully intimate.

The story is simple. Faust (tenor Matthew Plenk), a bored and aging scholar, is lured off by Mephistopheles (baritone Philip Cutlip) to a tavern where he complains about his dull, arid life. Next thing he knows, he’s falling in love with the lithe and willing Marguerite (mezzo Sasha Cooke).

To cut to the chase, she ends up in jail for killing her mother, and it’s time for Faust to strike that deal with the Devil: In exchange for saving Marguerite, Faust offers his soul to Mephisto for all eternity.

Familiar story, beautifully performed. I was rapt for the entire two hours. In fact, I can easily say this was one of the best symphony concerts I’ve ever attended.

My favorite of the three soloists was Cutlip, the baritone Mephisto. Cutlip’s a star in the opera world known for his charming bad-boy roles, from the double murderer Joseph De Rocher in Houston Grand Opera’s Dead Man Walking to the trickster Papageno in Seattle Opera’s Magic Flute (where a Seattle Times critic called him “adorable” as an actor). He’s been repeatedly featured on Barihunks, a blog about the sexiest baritones in opera.

As Mephisto, Cutlip was quick, engaging and theatrical, a perfect foil to Plenk’s straight-man Faust.

Now here’s where the opera thickens. Cutlip started fooling around on stage during the performance. He slouched in his seat. He took off his jacket and tie. He put on a cowboy hat. He dropped a water bottle that clattered noisily on the stage floor.

All the while, I’m thinking this is an unusual but interesting take on Mephisto. Is this what you get when you cast a bad boy as the devil? Meta-opera, perhaps?

Then, Sunday morning I picked up The Register-Guard and read Alison Kaufman’s absolutely scathing review of Cutlip’s performance.

“Hell was indeed present on stage in the form of baritone Philip Cutlip,” she wrote. “Never has such an insulting mess of unprofessionalism been permitted to share this stage — at least not in my years attending Eugene performances.”

Let me say here, brava, Alison! I have never before read in the R-G such a harsh review of anything the symphony has done. I mean, I’ve written the odd negative review now and again, but wow!

“How this ‘singer’ gets hired is beyond me, and hopefully Eugene will not be subjected to this clown again,” she concluded.

Kaufman is a Ph.D. student in musicology at the UO School of Music and Dance, which supplies a lot of musicians to the symphony’s orchestra and chorus. Obviously she knew something I didn’t coming into the Faust performance. So I spent some time Sunday checking in with a few musicians around town.

The story I got is one of a backstage soap opera that afflicted last week’s rehearsals, with clashes between conductor Danail Rachev and the chorus and between Rachev and Cutlip, who was suffering severe allergies and had pulled his voice back until the concert.

Kaufman and I had utterly different contexts for the evening: She was, no doubt, seeing the concert — and Cutlip’s cowboy antics, whether entertaining or unprofessional — in terms of those rehearsal battles.

Me, I saw and heard an utterly enjoyable concert with, at the end, a couple strange twists from one of many performers on the Silva stage.

Context may be everything; will past be prelude? Faust was Rachev’s next-to-last appearance conducting the orchestra as music director. Given all that happened last week, it will be interesting to hear him conduct Richard Strauss’ An Alpine Symphony for his final Eugene gig May 11.

A Note From the Publisher

Dear Readers,

The last two years have been some of the hardest in Eugene Weekly’s 43 years. There were moments when keeping the paper alive felt uncertain. And yet, here we are — still publishing, still investigating, still showing up every week.

That’s because of you!

Not just because of financial support (though that matters enormously), but because of the emails, notes, conversations, encouragement and ideas you shared along the way. You reminded us why this paper exists and who it’s for.

Listening to readers has always been at the heart of Eugene Weekly. This year, that meant launching our popular weekly Activist Alert column, after many of you told us there was no single, reliable place to find information about rallies, meetings and ways to get involved. You asked. We responded.

We’ve also continued to deepen the coverage that sets Eugene Weekly apart, including our in-depth reporting on local real estate development through Bricks & Mortar — digging into what’s being built, who’s behind it and how those decisions shape our community.

And, of course, we’ve continued to bring you the stories and features many of you depend on: investigations and local government reporting, arts and culture coverage, sudoku and crossword puzzles, Savage Love, and our extensive community events calendar. We feature award-winning stories by University of Oregon student reporters getting real world journalism experience. All free. In print and online.

None of this happens by accident. It happens because readers step up and say: this matters.

As we head into a new year, please consider supporting Eugene Weekly if you’re able. Every dollar helps keep us digging, questioning, celebrating — and yes, occasionally annoying exactly the right people. We consider that a public service.

Thank you for standing with us!