Gounod’s Faust (1859) was among the world’s most performed operas from the 1860s to World War II, and still remains a core repertory work. The story, adapted by Gounod’s librettists Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, is based on Part I of Goethe’s epic poem Faust. When Faust was premiered at the Paris Opéra in 1869, Gounod added a ballet to Act V, featuring an unbridled party of witches and devils on the Brocken Mountain.
