Tuesday, February 9, 2010

FAUST and Opera

The Faust story has inspired opera composers as well. Gounod's opera Faust is the most famous, but my personal favorite is Boito's Mephistofele. Busoni's Doktor Faust is based on Marlowe's earlier play. Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress combines the Faust story with inspiration from William Hogarth's famous paintings/prints about a man who wastes his life on fast living. Dusapin's Faustus, the Last Night is a completely new imagining of the Faust legend- focusing on the theme of time and how human beings attempt to control it.



Charles Gounod's Faust (1859)


Arrigo Boito's Mefistofele (1868)


Ferruccio Busoni's Doktor Faust (1916-25)


Igor Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress (1951)




Pascal Dusapin's Faustus, the Last Night (2006)

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