The figure of Dr. Faust, the scientist who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for eternal youth, has been the subject of the arts for half a millennium. The fantastic story of the German alchemist Johann Georg Faust, born in 1480, dates back to the 16th century. s. It appeared in trade fair comedies at the beginning of the 15th century and then spread in a German folk book from 1587, rose to a literary level with the drama of Christopher Marlowe and has since won many reworkings. Goethe first described the name Faust in a comedy in 1769 and then occupied the subject for six decades.
Most of the composers were already inspired by the German poet prince after the publication of the first part of the Goethe tragedy in 1808. His musical influence, beyond the great works of romance - Schubert, Berlioz, Liszt, Wagner, Mahler, Boito - lasts until a 1997 rock opera, and even to this day. Of all Faust's musicals, Gounod's opera is the most popular. The source of his success is his richness of emotion, his interweaving of alternating monumentality and intimacy, and a whole series of arias.
