From Goethe to Louise Bertin: adaptation and appropriation

At the time of its premiere, Louise Bertin’s opera was a further contribution to the Faust mania that had enthused Paris for several years past. In France, more than in any other country, stage adaptations of Goethe’s play, the first part of which (known today as ‘Faust I’) was published in Germany in 1808, were flourishing, fuelled by several translations of the work.