It is close to fifty years since that was written, (That was back in 1916, reg) yet Faust is today the only serious rival to Tannhäuser, Lohengrin and Carmen.

Charles François Gounod was born in Paris in 1818, and died there in 1893. Like Bizet and Berlioz, he carried off the Prix de Rome at the Concervatoire, and his three years stay in Rome fostered in him a powerful religious sentiment.

His first operas failed completely, and this temporarily drove him back to scared music.

It is staggering to think that the public of that time were so long in waking up to the fact that here was a work of beauty and charm, destined to live. But what could be expected of the public when Berlioz (jealous, of course) declared that Gounod had not the smallest conception of the subject he sought to treat? One music critic cynically said that Faust had only a Waltz and a Chorus, another hoped that Gounod would never repeat the experiment.

The above was written by Cuthbert Haddon in 1916.

Last Updated on 31st March 2001

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