1) Act 1, Sc. 1: A dialogue scene, followed by a terzetto and a solo mélodrame for Faust, in which Siébel and Wagner, summoned by Faust, confess that their studies with him (Wagner’s in medicine, Siébel’s in theology) have not progressed well because Wagner, much given to partying in any case, has elected to head off with the military, while Siébel, adolescent hormones raging, has fallen hopelessly in love with Marguerite and cannot concentrate. They bid affectionate leave of their Master, while Faust wonders what has become of his life, and why he should fear death. This scene occurs just after Faust’s invocation with the offstage girls and laborers (“Dieu, Dieu, Dieu!“) and his rousing of the Devil (“Maudite soyez-vous,” etc.), omitting the eight bars beginning with “Mais ce Dieu,” which in the 1869 version serves to make the transition.

2) Act 1, Sc. 2: First, in the midst of the big Kermesse chorus, a couple of lines for a beggar, seeking alms. Then, at the chorus’s conclusion, a dialogue scene among Wagner, Siébel, and other students. Wagner urges everyone, including Siébel, to keep drinking and gambling; they all enter the tavern. This is followed by a dialogue scene and duet (“Adieu, Valentin!“) between Valentin and Marguerite, wherein she expresses her fears as he heads off to war, he seeks to quiet them, and she gives him the holy medallion. (In the opera we know now, “Avant de quitter,” together with its recitative and Valentin’s skeletal exchanges with Siébel and the chorus, stand in for this.) The others now all re-enter from the tavern. In dialogue, they discuss the impending departure, and Siébel promises to care for Marguerite as would a brother. All this before the entrance of the now-frisky Faust with Méphistophélès. In a mélodrame sequence, Wagner begins his “Song of the Rat” but is interrupted by Méphistophélès, as in 1869. The latter sings his song glorifying gold, but it is now about the rise and fall in the fortunes of a beetle, rather than of the Golden Calf (or, as in Goethe, Berlioz, or Mussorgsky, a flea). Here the scenario follows as in 1869—but in mélodrame, not recitative, until the Sword Chorale, wherefrom it is identical to the end of the scene, excepting the use of dialogue rather than recitative for the exchange between Méphistophélès and Faust after the Chorale.

Act 2 (the Garden Scene): From the end of Siébel’s song to “Salut, demeure,” some minor changes in text and substitutions of speech for singing. After the tenor cavatine, dialogue for Faust and Mephisto (more elaborated than 1869’s recitative, but with no real change in content) to Marguerite’s double aria. Then, the entrance of Marthe and a dialogue scene between her and Marguerite, again not different in intent but more highly developed than in the 1869 sung redaction. And dialogue prevails to the formal beginning of the Quartet (“Prenez mon bras un moment“), at the conclusion of which (“Cher Seigneur!/Serviteur!“), there is more flirtatious banter (spoken) between Marthe and Mephisto and the aforementioned return of Siébel to the garden. But this continues in dialogue, and is much more extended than the brief sung version in the Dover score, embracing a confrontation between Siébel as suitor and Marthe as guardian. Then we have Méphistophélès Invocation, here partly spoken and partly sung, and the return of Faust and Marguerite (in dialogue), during which Marguerite expresses her astonishment at the transformation of the garden. Singing returns at “Laisse-moi contempler ton visage,” and from here the act proceeds to the end as in 1869, with the opening of the once-standard cut in the duo and a couple of rewrites in Marguerite’s vocal line.