Faust (opera)

Faust is an 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 Goethe's Faust, Part 1. It debuted at the Théatre-Lyrique in Paris on March 19, 1859.Faust was declined at the National Opera House, on the grounds that it was not sufficiently "showy", and its appearance at the Théatre-Lyrique had been delayed for a year because Dennery's drama Faust was currently playing at the Porte St. Martin. The manager Leon Carvalho (who cast his wife Marie Caroline, née Felix-Miolan, 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 Caroline Carvalho repeating her role. It was revived in Paris in 1862, now a hit. A ballet had to be inserted before the work would be played at the Théâtre Impérial de l´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.
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