English Issue 31-32/2025

In October, the curtain will rise at the Goetheanum for the new production of Faust from 2020 to 2022. Through nine hours and 48 scenes, “the myth of modern man,” as it is often called, will unfold. “He’d pillage heaven for its brightest star / And earth for every last delight that’s to be found / Not all that’s near nor far / Can satisfy a heart so restless and profound,” is how his adversary and companion Mephistopheles characterizes Faust’s life—and our life. Goethe transforms the impossibility of uniting transfiguration and passion, depth and breadth, into a hymn to life. How wonderful that this hymn will resound again at the Goetheanum in 2025.