Poster advertising a production in Paris of 'La Damnation de Faust' by Hector Berlioz, c.1910...

This work, which Berlioz originally subtitled as an “Opéra de concert” and later described as a “dramatic legend”, incorporates music from two prior compositions, the withdrawn Huit scènes de Faust of 1829, and Berlioz’s arrangement of the Hungarian Marche de Rákóczy; The first performance, in Paris at the Opéra-Comique on 6 December 1846, was conducted by Berlioz. The first operatic performance of the work was by the Opéra de Monte-Carlo on 18 February 1893, and the work is to the current day occasionally staged as an opera rather than in the concert hall; Hector Berlioz (1803-69);