Mefistofele

Act II

“Garden”
Reawakened to youthfulness, Faust, in love, goes for a stroll with the inexperienced Margherita, while Mefistofele half-heartedly walks with her interested neighbor Martha. Margherita asks Faust what he believes in; Faust only wants a rush of love. Faust hands Margherita a sleeping pill for her mother so that he can return unnoticed to enjoy the eagerly anticipated night of love.

“Walpurgis Night”
Mefistofele leads Faust into the deep abysses of the witches' sabbath. At the orgiastic climax, Faust sees the dead Margherita, and Mefistofele struggles to blot out this image from his mind through ecstasy.

Act III

“Dungeon”
Margherita awaits her execution in prison. She unwittingly poisoned her mother with the supposed sleeping pill and killed her own child in distress. Faust wants to free her from the dungeon, but the utopian dream of fleeing together to an idyllic island is not possible. When Mefistofele urges him to hurry, Margherita recognizes him and shrinks back. She is judged and saved.

Act IV

“Night of the Classical Sabbath”
Faust flees into his Arcadian dream world, whose enchanting poetry Mefistofele does not understand. Faust now sees the “beautiful Helen” as embodying the ancient ideal of eternal beauty and grace and believes he has discovered the secret of love.

Epilogue

Faust sees the end of his life approaching, but he has thus far been denied a moment that is beautiful for eternity. With Margherita, he has experienced the pleasure and sorrows of earthly love, with Helen the limitation of imagined worlds. Only in his own aspiration to make possible a better reality does Faust recognize the moment that is beautiful for eternity, and in this way eludes Mefistofele's influence.