(Copyright, 1893, by G. Ricordi & Co.)
There are mysterious choruses—sibilant and articulately vocalized—and a final fugue.
MEFISTOFELE
(MEPHISTOPHELES)
Opera in four acts; words and music by Arrigo Boïto, the book based on Goethe's Faust. Produced, without success, La Scala, Milan, March 5, 1868; revised and revived, with success, Bologna, October 4, 1875. London, Her Majesty's Theatre, July 1, 1880. New York, Academy of Music, November 24, 1880, with Campanini, Valleria, Cary, and Novara; and Metropolitan Opera House, December 5, 1883, Campanini, Nilsson, Trebelli, and Mirabella. Revivals: Metropolitan Opera House, 1889 (Lehmann); 1896 (Calvé); 1901 (Margaret McIntyre, Homer, and Plançon); 1904 (Caruso and Eames); 1907 (Chaliapine); later with Caruso, Hempel, Destinn, and Amato. Manhattan Opera House, 1906, with Renaud. Chicago Opera Company, with Ruffo. The singer of Margaret usually takes the part of Elena (Helen), and the Martha also is the Pantalis.
Characters
| Mefistofele | Bass |
| Faust | Tenor |
| Margherita | Soprano |
| Martha | Contralto |
| Wagner | Tenor |
| Elena | Soprano |
| Pantalis | Contralto |
| Nereno | Tenor |
Mystic choir, celestial phalanxes, cherubs, penitents,
wayfarers, men-at-arms, huntsmen, students, citizens,
populace, townsmen, witches, wizards, Greek
chorus, sirens, nayads, dancers, warriors.
Time—Middle Ages.
Place—Heaven; Frankfurt, Germany; Vale of Tempe, Ancient Greece.
"Mefistofele" is in a prologue, four acts, and epilogue. In Gounod's "Faust," the librettists were circumspect, and limited the book of the opera to the first part of Goethe's Faust, the story of Faust and Marguerite—succinct, dramatic, and absorbing. Only for the ballet did they reach into the second part of Goethe's play and appropriate the scene on the Brocken, which, however, is frequently omitted.