Faust’s Youth Restored

Gounod’s Faust, as it has come down to us over the last century-and-a-half, is one of the most assuredly well-known works in the operatic canon. It is, furthermore, the most prominent musical adaptation of what was, by far, the most significant and influential dramatic literary work of the 19th century. For the first hundred years after its premiere in 1859, Faust was the most widely performed opera in the world…