Stéphane Denève performs Gounod's original Faust

Human opera, with devils and angels

'Judging from the works I wrote before Faust, no one could have even imagined a score like this; no one had prepared the audience for it,' composer Charles Gounod said in his later memoirs. Despite all the devils and angels, he created a new, almost realistic opera with which the French - and soon the Europeans - could identify. Part of the success lay with the exceptional soloists. The title role Faust, a lyric tenor, is a psychological-vocal character portrayal of a split personality. Marguérite's famous jewel aria, "Ah! je ris de me voir...," is of lyrical-virtuoso beauty, but here Gounod wanted a big, strong voice as in a grand-opéra, thus full of character.

Faust at the world premiere

Triumphs celebrated the opera in a later version from 1869, but at its world premiere in Paris in 1859, the work sounded very different. Dialogues instead of recitatives, for example, and different accents among the characters. The composer tinkered long and hard with his opera so there is no real primal version, but it is special to hear Faust in all its original freshness.