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When any opera on its fifth performance within a month has as many problems in musical ensemble as did last night's "Faust" at the Metropolitan Opera, there must either be sabotage from the musicians and chorus or incompetence in the pit. There was no evidence whatsoever of the former and plenty of the latter.

Georges Pretre, the conductor, cut about 20 minutes off his own time in the opera and, in the fashion that some of us can well remember from his tenure with the Met a decade ago, sped up and slowed down the music in such a way that both chorus and principals were often confused.

Having heard several "Fausts" this season, this listener can understand why the chorus made a mess of the Kermesse - every performance has been an experiment in tempos - and if the Marguerite, Johanna Meier, did not indeed go mad after the Prison Scene and attack the conductor, she is one balanced soprano. Immediately before the trio he accelerated the tempo so unexpectedly and with such a lurch that she almost fell behind, and he led the whole Trio at the same fast speed. For almost a decade the Metropolitan existed very well without Pretre. Why has he returned?

The, performance had two previously unreviewed cast changes, both new to the Met: Miss Meier as Marguerite and Bonaldo Giaiotti as Mephistopheles. Miss Meier, a tall, stately woman, looked very much the Gretchen of Goethe's drama and sang with power, thrust and, except for a few high notes, a shade off center. In the Church Scene and the final Trio particularly she filled the Met with radiant sound.

Still, Marguerite is not her role, because it demands a girlishness, na?vet? and brightness of voice that does not belong to her near dramatic soprano. One longed for more French style - not an improvement in language so much as more sense of the Gallic approach to Marguerite and more vulnerability. Heaven knows, the Met needs a soprano with so much voice, but she should be in a role better suited to her.

Giaotti Magnificent

Giaotti was vocally magnificent as Mephistopleles. Since Cesare Siepi's heyday, no one has sung the whole role with such command and beauty of tone. His French was good, and his style in singing exemplary. What a joy to hear the Serenade easy on top and bottom, the invocation to the flowers sepulcharally intoned and the Walpurgis Night and Prison Scene so freshly rendered!

Mephistopeles demands lot of an actor, too, and here Giaiotti is obviously feeling his way. The difference between his first performance last week and last night's was amazing and reflects much credit on him and on Bodo Igesz, the stage director. He still jumps around a little too much to suggest the elegance and sophistication of Gounod's devil and his costume does not flatter him, but he is moving in the right direction.

Stuart Burrows repeated his colorless Faust as did Lenus Carlson his strained Valentin. Judith Forst also offered her pushed Siebel, and the ballet regretfully again danced the complete Walpurgis Night. When "Faust" is next revived, is there any way to rid us of that whole scene? Its 30 minutes stretch a long opera longer, the music is the most tiresomely trite in all of Gounod (which is saying a lot!) and Stuart Sebastian's choreography suggests a witches' sabbath about as much as would an Arthur Murray class in ballroom dancing.

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