Faust

Faust is an opera in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, draws upon Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s two-part play based on the German legend of a man who sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for knowledge and power.

Gounod’s opera does not attempt to match the thematic breadth or the philosophical sophistication of Goethe’s sprawling masterpiece, concentrating instead on Faust’s romantic encounter with Marguerite (Gretchen in Goethe’s drama) and the tragic results of their liaison.

Faust was staged first time in Bydgoszcz in 1960, directed by Hugo Morycinski, under the musical direction of Zdzislaw Bytnar. The character returned later: in the A. Boit's opera Mephistopheles (directed by Tomasz Konina) and H. Berlioz's dramatic legend The Damnation of Faust (directed by Maciej Prus).

Paweł Szkotak said:

[...] the war background, originally appearing in the libretto without specific temporal references, is the context for the choices made by the characters. It also raises non-obvious but clear associations with the war going on in Ukraine today.

Gounod's version of Opera Nova's Faust is set during World War I in France. Costumes and props have been prepared in accordance with historical realities. The whole play can also be read as Faust's internal struggle.