Mephisopheles and Marionette, not your favorite candy.
Charles Gounod (1818-93, France) composed all forms of music but these two pieces which seemingly one has nothing to do with the other, are pulsing in unison in the complicated drama of our own lives. If you listen to them back to back, you will hear the musical similarity in theme as well.
Faust - Version 1860/1869 / Act 4 No.24 Sérénade: "Vous qui faites l'endormie"
This is Bryn Terfel, my other favorite bass-baritone.
In this scene, Mephistopheles taunts Marguerite for being knocked up and abandoned by Faust, in a very *rude, crude and lewd* manner. The sweetness of the serenade is not what it is, but the crude cynicism of Mephistopheles, who is not at all entirely innocent in this whole turn of *drama*.
"You should have waited to open your door, till you have the ring on your finger." , he torments and laughs at the girl...
Her brother challenged Faust in a duel for making his sister an outcast.
Guess what, he got killed by Faust, of course. (Has Mephistopheles anything to do with it? )
Then for the other, Funeral march of a marionette...
Two marionettes had a duel.
One got killed.
So the others are holding a funeral for their late friend.
Do you hear the cynical tone through out the piece?
How the life can be so short and wary. Even for the marionettes.
Funeral March of a Marionette (Marche funèbre d'une marionette)
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