Faust

Description

Gounod dreamed of a Faust during his stay in Rome in the 1840s. However, it would take almost twenty years for one of the most famous scores of French Romanticism to be created on the stage of the Théâtre-Lyrique in Paris (1859). Its entry into the Opéra in 1869 propelled the work worldwide, but many modifications were necessary to achieve this notoriety. Between the Faust of 1859 and the version of 1869, part of the spirit was lost: that of the spontaneity of spoken dialogue and melodrama, that of the cheekiness of Dame Marthe or the cynicism of Méphistophélès. The charm of the early tenors who sang "Salut, demeure chaste et pure" with that typical color of the mixed voice of opéra-comique has been forgotten. A large number of pieces were also cut as a result of these modifications. Rediscovering the first Faust means better understanding the French aesthetic of demi-caractère, so particular to Paris in the 1850s.