It has almost become a cliche to talk about the brilliance of Colin Davis's interpretations of Berlioz. But if his reputation in this repertoire is virtually unassailable, there is nothing complacent about his performances. His latest account of Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust with the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus was yet another demonstration of his flair for this music.
Berlioz defined La Damnation de Faust as "an opera without decor or costumes"; it is the vividness of his orchestration that creates the elaborate scene changes in the drama. Under Davis's direction, the players of the orchestra became actors in their own right, creating the musical scenery for Faust's doomed journey into oblivion, which begins with the pastoral calm of the opening of part one and descends into the chromatic hell of part four.
Alastair Miles's Mephistopheles matched the orchestra's dramatic sensitivity, and he relished every detail of the supernatural effects Berlioz invents for his character. He jumped up from his seat for his opening lines, just as the orchestra created a malevolent explosion of rasping trombone lines and weird string sounds. And he captured the irony at the heart of the character. Every time Faust thinks he has found an escape from his crippling world-weariness, Mephistopheles appears, revealing the hollowness of human feeling and turning Faust inexorably towards his doom. Miles's Mephistopheles took a perverse pleasure in destroying Stuart Neill's Faust - whether in the church, as Faust believes he has rediscovered his relationship with God, or in Marguerite's bedroom, where he refuses to allow him to consummate his feelings.
Petra Lang inhabited the character of Marguerite as completely as if she were playing the part on the opera stage. She controlled her long final aria with absolute conviction, moving from hopeful longing to a palpitating, passionate frenzy.
The only disappointment in the cast was Neill's Faust. The character may be defined by selfishness and ennui, but Neill was disengaged from the drama. Where Miles and Lang characterised their parts, Neill was content merely to sing the notes, and despite the tenor's impressive command of Berlioz's stratospheric writing, he made Faust an absent anti-hero.
Davis was the ringmaster of the whole show, magically transforming the orchestra and chorus from drunken, brawling students into denizens of the underworld. The final scene change was the most complete, turning the pits of hell into the celestial sounds of Marguerite's redemption. With four harps and seraphic string writing, this is Berlioz's orchestration at its most sumptuous and the LSO at its most ravishing.
