The other Faust

The undisputed masterpiece of Charles Gounod, Faust has acquired an international reputation in its wholly sung version. But this is to forget that the work, the subject of which had not interested the director of the Paris Opéra, had initially been composed with spoken dialogue for the Théâtre-Lyrique, the third-ranking Parisian opera house after the Académie Impériale de Musique (Opéra) and the Opéra-Comique. The mixed form that was chosen for the occasion, which differs from both grand opéra and opéra-comique, itself went through two principal versions which include unpublished numbers and melodramas.