Faust (Spohr)

  • Faust (baritone )
  • Mephistofeles (baritone )
  • Count Hugo (Tenor)
  • Cunegonde, his betrothed (soprano )
  • Florets, a young girl (soprano )
  • Kaylinger, a friend of Faust (baritone )
  • Well Hardt, a friend of Faust (tenor )
  • Wagner, a friend of Faust (tenor )
  • Moor, a friend of Faust (baritone )
  • Franz ( Tenor)
  • Gulf ( bass)
  • Sycorax, a witch (soprano )
  • Count Hugo's Page (voice)

Faust is an opera by the German composer Louis Spohr. The libretto by Joseph Carl Bernard takes on the legend of Faust. It was not influenced by Goethe's Faust, whose first part appeared in 1808. Instead, Carl Bernard's libretto significant relative to a stage play and poem by Friedrich Maximilian Klinger and Heinrich von Kleist. Spohr's Faust is regarded as an important work in the history of German-language opera.

Performance history

Spohr had given up his position at the court of Gotha and had moved to Vienna, where he was employed at the acquired Erdöd short time ago by Count Ferdinand Palffy Theater an der Wien. He composed the work in less than four Between May and September 1813, but he could not communicate with Count Palffy to a premiere in Vienna. He took private connection with Giacomo Meyerbeer on, to whom he submitted the manuscript. Meyerbeer Spohr played and sang, the places that were not in his voice, he whispered. Only when won Carl Maria von Weber note of the piece, it came under Weber's line at the Estates Theatre in Prague on September 1, 1816 for the premiere. The premiere in Berlin headed Meyerbeer with Johann Nepomuk Schelble in the role of Faust and Therese Grünbaum as Cunegonde.

According to the original manuscript of thumb was actually a musical comedy in two acts. It was not until 1851 Spohr transformed the spoken dialogue to recitative and brought fist so in the form of a great opera with three acts. This version concluded, in its Italian translation in London's Covent Garden on July 15, 1852 at the Royal Opera House for the premiere. After 1931 Faust was again played at the Theatre under the musical direction of Geoffrey Moull and directed by Matthias Oldag in 1993 in the original version of 1816 for the first time. In addition to eight performances, she was also recorded for the record label Classic Production Osnabrück. Since April 2010, the piece in the Schedules of the state Sachsen.

Action

Own can not decide between his love for the young florets and Cunegonde, the fiancée of Count Hugo himself. He concludes with the devil Mephistopheles a contract that allows him to preserve Cunegonde from the snares of the evil knight Gulf. Faust receives from the hands of the witch Sycorax a love potion that during their marriage he reaches Cunegonde under a pretext. Count Hugo, angered by the sudden change of his bride, challenges Faust to a duel. Faust kills him and flees with Cunegonde. As florets, Faust's first love, learns of the infidelity, she goes out of despair into the water. Mefistopheles goes to hell with fist.

Recordings

  • Faust: Michael Four, Eelco of Jordis, William Pugh, Diane Jennings, Ion Bric, Claudia Taha; Bielefeld Opera Chorus, Chorus of the Opera Bielefeld, Bielefeld Philharmonic Orchestra, Conducted by Geoffrey Moull; cpo 999247-2, 1993
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