Afternoon at the Opera

La Damnation of Faust

 
The Met Ensemble performing La Damnation of Faust.

The Metropolitan Opera

Description of Berlioz's La Damnation of Faust from the Metropolitan Opera's website:

Berlioz’s magnificent exploration of the Faust legend is a unique operatic journey. The visionary French composer was inspired by a bold translation of Goethe’s dramatic poem Faust and produced a monumental and bewildering musical work that, like the masterpiece on which it's based, defies easy categorization. Conceived at various times as a free-form oratorio and as an opera, La Damnation de Faust is both intimate and grandiose, exquisitely beautiful and blaringly rugged, hugely ambitious, and presciently cinematic.