Faust (opera)
| Faust | |
|---|---|
| Opera by Charles Gounod | |
Marguerite's garden in the original production, set design by Édouard Desplechin
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| Librettist | |
| Based on |
Faust et Marguerite by Carré |
| Premiere | 19 March 1859 Théâtre Lyrique , Paris |
Faust is a grand opera in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1. It debuted at the Théâtre Lyrique on the Boulevard du Temple in Paris on 19 March 1859, with influential sets designed by Charles-Antoine Cambon and Joseph Thierry (Act I and Act III, scene 1), Jean Émile Daran (Act II), Édouard Desplechin (Act III, scene 2; Act V), and Philippe Chaperon (Act IV).
Faust was rejected by the Paris Opera, on the grounds that it was not sufficiently "showy", and its appearance at the Théâtre-Lyrique was delayed for a year because Adolphe d'Ennery's drama Faust was playing at the Porte Saint-Martin. The manager Léon Carvalho (who cast his wife Marie Miolan-Carvalho as Marguerite) insisted on various changes during production, including cutting several numbers.
Faust was not initially well received. The publisher Antoine Choudens, who purchased the copyright for 10,000 francs, took the work (with added recitatives replacing the original spoken dialogue) on tour through Germany, Belgium, Italy and England, with Marie Miolan-Carvalho repeating her role.
It was revived in Paris in 1862, and was a hit. A ballet had to be inserted before the work could be played at the Opéra in 1869: it became the most frequently performed opera at that house and a staple of the international repertory, which it remained for decades, being translated into at least 25 languages. The first Opéra production of Faust had settings by Jean-Baptiste Lavastre and Édouard Desplechin (Act I, scene 1; Acts II and V), Charles-Antoine Cambon (Acts I, scene 2; Act III; Act IV, scene 3), and Auguste-Alfred Rubé and Philippe Chaperon (Act IV), with costumes by Paul Lormier. The Palais Garnier's first-generation staging, premiered on 6 September 1875, was directed by Léon Carvalho, with sets by Charles-Antoine Cambon and Jean Émile Daran (Acts I and III), Jean-Baptiste Lavastre and Édouard Desplechin (Acts II and V), and Auguste-Alfred Rubé and Philippe Chaperon (Act IV). Further notable revivals at the Opéra took place on 4 December 1893 (stage director: Lapissida; sets by Carpezat, Rubé & Chaperon, Cornil, and Fromont) and 25 January 1908 (stage director: Paul Stuart; costumes by Joseph Pinchon; sets by Carpezat, Amable & Cioccari, Simas, Jambon & Bailly, and Ronsin).
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