Theatre
Mefistofele
Arrigo Boito · 1868
Opening lines
Tre Studenti, quattro Borghesi, due Cacciatori
Perchè di là?
— Volgiamo - verso il casin di caccia.
— E noi verso il mulino.
“Why that way?”
“Let us turn towards the hunting lodge.”
“And we towards the mill.”
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from archive.org
Synopsis
In a heavenly prologue, Mephistopheles mocks the divine powers and takes up the challenge of ruining the old Doctor Faust. On Easter Day, in Frankfurt, he approaches him in the habit of a grey friar, introduces himself as the spirit that denies, and proposes a pact: he will serve him on earth, and Faust will belong to him in the hereafter. Faust accepts. He then seduces Margaret, a girl from the village, and Mephistopheles leads him to the witches' sabbath on the Brocken.
Context
The author wrote both the libretto and the score. The premiere, at La Scala in Milan on 5 March 1868, was a failure: the work, judged too long, was booed. He cut it by about a third, and the new version was first performed in Bologna in 1875. It was the only opera he completed. In France, the work is performed under its Italian title, as at the Opéra de Lyon, which publishes the libretto in its programme; English-speaking countries also refer to it by this title.
Who it is for
A libretto in verse, which can be read without the music; it is better to know Goethe's drama, whose main stages it follows.
Prizes and reception
The revised version, premiered in Bologna, was an immediate success.