Le Petit Faust

The first performance of this three-act opéra-bouffe was given barely two months after the new version of Gounod’s Faust was staged at the Paris Opéra. Leaving aside the metaphysical aspect of the myth, the librettists Hector Crémieux and Adolphe Jaime created instead a moral satire. Their Marguerite – not as pure and innocent as the Germanic Gretchen – wreaks havoc at the boarding school to which she is brought by her brother Valentin. She seduces Dr Faust, the elderly professor who has accepted her as a pupil. Méphisto – a breeches role, taken by a light soprano – rejuvenates Faust, and the lovers end up in Hell, doomed to be together forever.

Le Petit Faust owed its success above all to the music by Hervé, who quoted only very sparingly from Gounod’s score. His inventiveness in parodying the style of the original and its various situations was greatly admired by the critics.