Devilishly alluring, in their own ways

Love, for Berlioz and Wagner, the two most radical composers of the 19th century, was so ecstatic a realm that they interpreted it as the main cause of damnation and redemption. For them, music was the art of magic, and only in opera reinvented could such Love (always capitalized) be, at last, revealed. In the mid-1840s, they showed how with “The Damnation of Faust” and “The Flying Dutchman.”

Now the two works are being performed next door to each other. At the War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco Opera has a phantasmagoric production of “Damnation,” which Berlioz called a dramatic legend to be presented in concert. Meanwhile, at Davies Symphony Hall, the San Francisco Symphony is performing “Dutchman” in concert. On Saturday and Sunday nights, both proved extraordinarily effective -- and pure San Francisco.

It is surprising to learn that Thomas Langhoff’s production of “Damnation” -- part of the opera’s June festival, which also includes “La Cenerentola” and “Il Trovatore” -- was originally conceived for Munich, Germany, a decade ago. Certainly, everyone here is talking about the S&M; scenes. The company has sent out warnings that this is not appropriate for children. Those sylphs who dance on the bank of the Elbe to charm Faust partake in a raunchy orgy -- Breughel in latex. In fact, the ballet turns into mechanical, sterile, silly sex set to delicate music. The opera is staged as if it takes place inside Faust’s head, and it’s a grotesque mess.

Besides the latex outfits with leather headgear and revealing cutouts for the contortionist dancers and mimes to wear, set and costume designer Jurgen Rose has created a claustrophobic box suspended on stage in which all the action takes place. It is surrounded by the chorus, seated as if it were a formally dressed audience reacting to the action.

Faust, carrying a suitcase and dressed in an overcoat and fedora, is the typical alienated protagonist of German opera productions. Saturday, he seemed all the more alienated because the American tenor David Kuebler sounded strained. Mephistopheles, who leads Faust astray, is all sleaze. The large, lumbering Icelandic baritone Kristinn Sigmundsson reminded me of Zero Mostel in the film version of “The Producers.” Thanks to the powerful German soprano Angela Denoke, Faust’s pure love object, Marguerite, is a tower of strength and good, healthy German angst. At the end, a chorus of children, carrying white crosses, sees to Marguerite’s celestial salvation.

What most makes this grotesque production work is the overriding excellence of Donald Runnicles’ conducting. With the opera orchestra bringing out the full range of Berlioz’s instrumental colors, and the vital chorus providing dramatic impact, funny business on stage becomes a perverse, ironic comment upon Berlioz.

By contrast, the San Francisco Symphony’s semi-staged “Dutchman “ -- part of the orchestra’s Wagner and Kurt Weill festival, titled “Innocence Undone” -- comes off as mostly innocent early Wagner, with stalwart singers belting their parts. But with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting his first Wagner opera, it is also monumental.

Despite earnest acting, the cheap decor of large sails suspended over the stage and hyperactive lighting, Tilson Thomas really achieves opera of the mind. What the production lacks visually the conductor makes up for acoustically. The spectacle is in the vivid use of sonic space. Tilson Thomas’ Wagner is unusually expansive, and it fills every nook and cranny of Davies.

The sound is huge. From the opening moments of the overture, the orchestra plays with a riveting dimensionality. A listener feels inside a marsh of sound, swamped by it but also aware of all its details. The roiling ocean, the haunting cries of the wandering Dutchman, whose damnation cannot be undone until a true love is willing to die for him, are made visceral.

Director Peter McClintock has choruses of sailors running here and there on the terrace above the orchestra, while the ghostly Dutch chorus makes a ghostly effect from behind the audience. Designers David Finn and Daniel Hubp have set various platforms on the terrace for the soloists, and often they sing far apart, further enhancing the feeling of spaciousness.

Mark Delavan, in leather overcoat and pants, but with no revealing cutouts like his damned cohorts next door, brings a moody ardor to the Dutchman. Jane Eaglen, the Senta, belts away as she often does. She is large and a dutiful actress. But I have never heard her sound so impressive. It is as though with all that space to fill, and with Tilson Thomas’ expansive tempos giving her the time to do so, she becomes the embodiment of rapture.

There were fine performances from Stephan Milling (Daland), Jill Grove (Mary) and Eric Cutler (Steerman). Thomas Studebaker (Erik) tenuously filled in for Mark Baker. But this performance belongs to MTT, his imposing orchestra and chorus. Close your eyes, and, depending on your imagination, it can be as psychedelic as the neighboring “Damnation.”

Faust’s damnation, incidentally, will continue in September, when Los Angeles Opera opens its season with a new production of Berlioz’s “opera” by another German director, Achim Freyer.

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Opera productions

What: “The Damnation of Faust”

Where: War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco

When: Today and Friday, 8 p.m.; June 26, 7:30 p.m.; June 29, 2 p.m.; July 3, 7:30 p.m.

Price: $24 to $175

Contact: (415) 864-3330

Also

“The Flying Dutchman”

Where: Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco

When: Thursday and Saturday, 7:30 p.m.

Price: $29 to $97

Contact: (415) 864-6000