Born in 1805, Louise Bertin was a younger contemporary of Berlioz, and, like him, studied in Paris with Anton Reicha. Fausto was her third opera, one of the earliest to be based on the first part of Goethe’s Faust, and first performed in 1831. It received a lukewarm reception, and Bertin composed only one more stage work – La Esmeralda, based upon Victor Hugo’s Notre-Dame de Paris, for which Hugo himself wrote the libretto. When its premiere, too, was a failure, she abandoned opera and concentrated on choral works, songs and chamber music.
The full score of Fausto was only rediscovered a few years ago, but this first recording, conducted with missionary zeal by Christophe Rousset and superbly played by the period instruments of Les Talens Lyriques, with Karine Deshayes as Faust and Karina Gauvin as Marguerite suggests that it deserves a bit more than occasional performances. Formally it’s an opera semiseria, with the text in Italian, yet the score owes much more to Beethoven and Weber than it does to Italian models, though there are still echoes of Rossini and Donizetti, so that stylistically it is a bit of a mishmash. Despite that, and a rather weak final scene, somebody surely will stage Fausto again very soon.
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