Ferruccio Busoni’s Doktor Faust: Features of the Aesthetics

Abstract

The article presents a musicological and artistic analysis of Ferruccio Busoni’s Doktor Faust. The author discovers the points of connection between Busoni’s final work with Goethe’s tragedy Faust, Dmitri Merezhkovsky’s novel “Voskresshiye Bogi. Leonardo da Vinci” [The Resurrected Gods. Leonardo da Vinci], a number of musical compositions by Mozart, Alban Berg and Richard Strauss, as well as Ferruccio Busoni’s own Second Sonatina and the opera Arlecchino, oder Die Fenster. The questions are examined of Busoni’s opera aesthetics, the philosophical-religious context of Doktor Faust, and the peculiarities of the composition’s libretto, the musical dramaturgy and thematicism. The assumption is expressed that the opera Doktor Faust, which presents the composer’s spiritual bequeathal, may present an interest for Russian producers who are interested in contemporary musical theater.