La Damnation de Faust
- Marguerite / Margaret (mezzo- soprano)
- Faust (tenor )
- Mephistopheles / Mephisto (baritone or bass)
- Brander ( bass)
- Large choir
- Expanded orchestra with incidental music.
La damnation de Faust, Op 24 is a dramatic legend in four parts by Hector Berlioz with a libretto by Hector Berlioz and Almire Gandonnière after translation of Goethe's Faust I by Gérard de Nerval.
Action
The Dramatic Legend divided into four parts and an epilogue.
Formation
About Goethe's Faust I, which met the composer in Gérard de Nerval's translation, he wrote: " This wonderful book captivated me immediately. I did not separate them and read it constantly: at the table, in the theater, in the street, everywhere, " 1828/29 was such a spectacle Music ( Huit Scènes de Faust ), which sent Berlioz to Goethe! . This showed interest and gave the score to Carl Friedrich Zelter. In its damning verdict to himself Goethe held back, however. Berlioz continued to struggle with the fabric and started on a conductor's tour through Austria, Hungary, Bohemia and Silesia with the composition of the opera fifteen years later.
"I tried neither, the masterpiece of Goethe translate, nor to imitate it, but let it only affect me, in an effort to capture his musical content. "
Source of inspiration for the design of the libretto were Goethe's tragedy beside the lithographs by Eugène Delacroix. A particularly obvious contrast to Goethe's Faust I is the musical brilliantly designed with Berlioz Faust's ride to hell. Completely random was Berlioz's decision, the first scene to Hungary to relocate: This was the sole reason to install the popular Rákóczi -Marsch in the piece can.
The premiere took place in concert form on December 6, 1846 Salle Favart (Opéra -Comique ) under the baton of the composer. The performance ended completely crashed for Berlioz in a financial disaster and rushed him in both high debt and in an artistic crisis. Resigned Berlioz realized that his work is little been successful. After a second performance on 12 December of the same year, which still increased its failure, the work in Paris was not listed at Berlioz 's lifetime again. However, he has conducted on December 16, 1866 a performance in Vienna, was involved in among other things, the Vienna Singing Club.
The work, a mixture of oratorio and opera number, had never been thought of Berlioz for a staged performance. Especially the last part with its surreal, is multi-layered overlapping levels of reality, the stage equipment to Berlioz 's lifetime would still overwhelmed. It was not until 24 years after his death, on 18 February 1893 Raoul Gunsbourg ventured a scenic first performance at the Salle Garnier ( Monte Carlo ) for which he made several scene changes and individual, not realizable parts emphasized throughout. To date, staged performances of the work are more likely to remain the exception.
The score was first published in 1854 in Richault in Paris.
Reception history
The famous Sylphentanz paraphrased et al Camille Saint- Saëns in the Carnival of the Animals and Oscar Straus in the soundtrack to La Ronde.