• Arrigo Boito. Opera in a prologue, five acts and an epilogue. Revised for performances in 1875 and 1876.
• Libretto by the composer, after Goethe's play Faust.
• First performance at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on 5th March 1858.

Amid the choirs of Heaven, Mephistopheles wagers that he can gain the soul of Faust. As Easter is celebrated in a square in Frankfurt, Faust notices a mysterious friar, who appears later in his study, revealing himself as Mephistopheles, the spirit that denies everything, and striking a bargain for Faust's soul. In the second act Faust, now young again, seduces Margherita and in a second scene is taken up into the Harz mountains to witness a Witches' Sabbath, where he sees a vision of Margherita with the mark of blood round her neck. In prison, accused of the murder of her mother and of her own baby, Margherita is visited by Faust, who urges her to escape. When Mephistopheles appears she recognises him as the Devil, and turns away from Faust as she dies, penitent and saved. In the Vale of Tempe Faust sees Helen of Troy, who tells of the destruction of Priam's city. Faust kneels before her, as his ideal of beauty, pledging his love. In the epilogue Faust, now old again, realises the futility of what he has experienced and prays for salvation, in spite of the urging of Mephistopheles, eager to lead him away. Finally Faust is saved, as the choirs of Heaven confirm.

Boito's opera provides a notable bass title rôle, particularly in the opening aria Ave Signor! (Hail, Lord) and his revelation of himself as the spirit of denial Son lo spirito che nega sempre (I am the spirit that always denies). Faust in his study in the first act thinks of God in Dai campi, dai prati (From the fields, from the meadows), while Margherita, in prison, tells of how she drowned her child in L'altra notte in fondo al mare (One night to the sea in sadness). The opera was unsuccessful at its first performance and was considerably modified for its later stagings in Bologna and then, in the now generally accepted version, in Venice.