Host Joyce DiDonato starts by saying that the 16th century plot has become a bit creaky. Can't argue with that. Then she enthuses about director Des McAnuff's solution to this problem. His Dr Faust is a suicidal nuclear scientist in 1945. The entire action takes place within his laboratory. The opera is, apparently a dream that takes place between his drinking the poison and finally snuffing it. Well, if that isn't creaky I don't know what is. The concept is not carried through with any consistency. When Faust is rejuvenated he also seems to travel back in time so the characters wear 19th century costumes in the 20th century laboratory.
I usually enjoy productions of Faust. The creakiness of the plot can be overcome by spectacular production values. Setting the action in a grey laboratory makes the action difficult to follow. Without any visual distractions, Gounod's music seems to hold up the drama rather than move it forward.
This production seemed interminable, despite a stellar cast. Jonas Kaufmann and Rene Pape are excellent as Faust and Mephistopheles. I was less keen on Marina Poplavskaya's Marguerite. Her pitching was a bit wayward at times and I was put off by the way she had to stand on tiptoes to reach the high notes of the Jewel Song. Michèle Losier is a charmless Siébel and Russell Braun is an unsympathetic Valentin although that is not surprising in a character who dies cursing his sister for getting pregnant.
In fact the pregnancy is the only bit of the production that I thought really worked. I have in the past been confused in the final Act when we suddenly see Marguerite in prison awaiting execution for killing her baby. What baby? In this production she is pregnant throughout Act 4. At the end of the act she is tormented by devils while in church. She gives birth and promptly drowns the baby in the baptismal font. That would probably be too much detail for 19th century opera audiences but it made the plot much clearer to me.