Faust

Faust was accepted by the Théâtre Lyrique and first given on 19 March 1859, to a libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré drawn from the first part of Goethe by way of a French stage adaptation. The original version had spoken dialogue; Gounod replaced it with recitative for the 1860 tour and added the ballet in 1869, when the work moved to the Paris Opéra. It became the most performed opera of the nineteenth century and opened the Metropolitan Opera in 1883. In Germany its liberties with Goethe were resented, and it is often billed there as Margarethe.