Faust Part 2

In Faust Part 1, Goethe stuck pretty closely to the Faust legend. In Part 2, he goes off the deep end.

The story delves heavily into Greek mythology. Faust even gains Helen of Troy. The language (even in translation) shows a great, well thought out complexity. I could see it as an elaborate science fiction movie driven by powerful music and impressive imagery. However, even there, I probably would not have a clue as to what was happening.

The librivox recording has generally well done vocals. However, the "choruses" are horrid. It seems obvious that the different members recorded their lines separately. When combined, the different speeds of speech make it quite difficult to understand the words. However, even when I did understand most of the other words, I had trouble understanding the story. Faust 2 is supposedly a very difficult work in its native German. An English translation does not make it easier.