Performance History
Spohr had left his court appointment at Gotha and taken up a post in Vienna at the Theater An der Wien, which had recently been purchased by Count Ferdinand Palffy von Erdöd. He composed the opera in less than four months, May to September 1813 but had difficulties with count Palffy that interfered with getting it staged in Vienna. Though he took the manuscript score privately to Giacomo Meyerbeer, who played it, with Spohr singing— supplementing his vocal range by whistling— it was not until Carl Maria von Weber took an interest in the score that it received its premiere. Weber conducted the first performance of Faust at the Ständetheater, Prague on 1 September 1816. Meyerbeer introduced it at Berlin.
In its original form, the opera was a Singspiel in two acts. In 1851, Spohr turned the piece into a grand opera in three acts, replacing the spoken dialogue with recitative. This "version (in an Italian translation) received its premiere at the Royal Italian Opera, Covent Garden, London on 15 July 1852. The Bielefeld Opera rediscovered Faust in 1993 in the first staged production world-wide since 1931. Conducted by Geoffrey Moull and directed by Matthias Oldag, the opera was given 8 performances and subsequently recorded for CPO.
Read more about this topic: Faust (Spohr)
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