Doktor Faust by Ferruccio Busoni

Did you know that, like many famous "legends," the story of Faust has some basis in fact? It seems there really was a Dr. Faust -- or at least a guy named Faust who called himself a doctor. Apparently, he traveled around Germany in the 16th century, doing magic tricks, telling fortunes and curing people of non-existent illnesses -- that is, he was a con-man. Before long, bamboozled peasants started whispering that Faust worked his magic with the aid of the devil -- that he'd actually sold his soul in exchange for his supposed "powers." So, when the good doctor died under mysterious circumstances around 1540, everyone figured the devil had finally showed up to collect on the deal. By 1587, the first biography of Faust had appeared. It was called The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus. It survives today because a British dramatist named Christopher Marlowe translated it into English and turned it into a play.

Now, remember how a bunch of young British musicians took American "R & B," Anglicized it, and sold it back to us as rock n' roll during the 1960's? Well, a similar thing happened three centuries earlier when a group of English actors brought Marlow's play back to Germany. The German actors who were saw the thing viewed it as a farce, and used it for one of the country's most popular forms of entertainment: the puppet show. One of those early, Faustian puppet shows was seen by a youngster named Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

But Goethe found nothing funny about the story. By the time he was 20, he had already spent three years working on scattered scenes and bits of dialogue, trying to turn this comical farce into a deadly serious play. It was a task that occupied him, on and off, for the next sixty years. What he finally came up with was one of the greatest and most influential literary works of all time.

Artists, novelists, film-makers and playwrights have been remaking the story of Faust ever since. And of course, there are no shortage of operas based on the tale. There's a fine American version by Douglass Moore, based on a sort story by Stephen Vincent Benet, called, "The Devil and Daniel Webster." And most opera-lovers are familiar with Gounod's Faust and Boito's Mefistofele.

But there's one Faustian opera that many of you may have missed: Doktor Faust, by Ferruccio Busoni. Compared to most of the others, it's been neglected for quite some time. Once you've heard it, you may wonder why. To learn more about this largely overlooked gem, tune in At the Opera, with Lou Santacroce, half-an-hour before curtain at the Metropolitan. Dr. Simon Richter will tell us about Goethe, who created what is probably the most enduring story about the battle between good and evil. Lou also talks with author Will Berger about the Prince of Darkness and his many guises, and conductor Stewart Robertson will clue us in on Busoni's music for the opera.

Tune in At the Opera, half-an-hour before curtain time at the MET, from National Public Radio.

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