Extending the Reach of Ferruccio Busoni’s Doktor Faust

This chapter documents the history and impact of the opera Doktor Faust (Doctor Faust), left incomplete by the Italian composer Ferruccio Busoni at his death in 1924, by surveying the completion proposed for the first performance (Dresden, 1925) by Busoni’s disciple Philipp Jarnach and, more recently, those offered by the musicologist Antony Beaumont and the composer Larry Sitsky, as well as the work’s translations, performances, and recordings. It examines works by Ronald Stevenson, Alistair Hinton, and Michael Finnissy, three composers from the United Kingdom on whom Busoni’s artistic figure has left a deep imprint and who have drawn on material from his masterpiece in a spirit of homage, thus drawing attention to its significance.