Doktor Faust
Composer Ferruccio Busoni.
Doktor Faust
Ferruccio Busoni
Composer Ferruccio Busoni.
An intellectual, driven by megalomania, the urge for recognition – and his own mid-life crisis – makes a pact with the devil. This subject has experienced countless recreations in art, literature and music most of them based on Goethe’s monumental “Faust” drama. Italian composer Ferruccio Busoni (1866 to 1924), however, took the old German puppet play version, the folk tale “Historia von D. Johann Fausten” as the source of his opera. The “Faust” story for once in a totally different guise: as a magic spell and mystery play. The first Munich performance will open the 2008 Festival: with Busoni’s Doktor Faust, we can now finally experience a fascinating encounter with a great composer, who was long consigned to a place in the shadows of Puccini and Italian verismo.