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Catherine Naglestad (Duchess of Parma), Wolfgang Koch (Faust), John Daszak (Mephistopheles); Bavarian Opera/ Tomas Netopil
Oehms 956 [3CD] 153 minutes
Ferruccio Busoni's Doktor Faust shares the same problem as several other operas, like Puccini's Turandot and Berg's Lulu: the composer died without finishing it. In the case of Doktor Faust, two composers, Philipp Jarnach and Antony Beaumont, composed different versions of the last scene. Thus a director or conductor has two versions to choose from. The production on this recording goes a step further. The libretto contains what seems to be the Beaumont version, but in listening to the actual recording, I realized that much of the text (and thus...