Busoni's Doktor Faust

Plunge into the mind of a tormented, exacting revolutionary, disillusioned with the world around him and with what life has—and doesn't have—to offer him. In his quest for perfection, the frustrated genius feels compelled to create, to express the music he hears and wishes to share with the world. This is the music of Doktor Faust, an opera by Italian composer Ferruccio Busoni, for which he wrote the libretto himself, and on which he labored feverishly in the years leading to his death in 1924. He nonetheless left it incomplete, and the task fell to his student Philipp Jarnach to provide the finishing touches.

A host of marquee names, led by Thomas Hampson in the title role, bring their talents to this early 20th-century masterpiece, with Busoni's score conducted expertly by Philippe Jordan. The Faustian legend comes to life in a staging that blends action, adventure, and philosophical reflection, punctuated by diabolical visions created by the demon Mephistopheles, performed by the fiery Gregory Kunde in an elegant production by Klaus Michael Grüber.