GOUNOD’S FAUST

Today *Faust* feels inevitable—classic, beloved, everywhere. But at first it was… ignored.

In London, the publisher Chappell & Co. bought the English performance rights from Gounod for **£60** and then basically let the manuscript sit on a shelf.

When opera impresario Colonel Mapleson desperately needed something “new,” he asked his friend Tom Chappell for help. Chappell handed him *Faust* with a shrug: if it has merits, you’ll discover them.

Mapleson dusted it off—literally, the story says it had cobwebs—and staged it. Within weeks the public went wild, and Gounod suddenly had “top‑tier composer” stamped on his passport.