Editing Mefistofele (section)

===19th century===

As the evening of 5 March 1868 premiere performance progressed, the hostility of the audience, unfamiliar with Boito's [[avant-garde]] musical style and unimpressed by many of the scenes (notably the scene in the emperor's court), steadily increased. Furthermore, the work was far too long and the cast inadequate for the complexities of the music. When the curtain finally came down well after midnight, it was clear that the premiere had been a failure. After just two performances, with the second one being divided into two sections and presented on successive evenings, the opera was withdrawn.

Boito immediately set to work revising his opera, greatly reduced its length by about one-third by making many scenes smaller in scale. The most important changes were the following: Boito removed the entire first scene of the original act 4 (scene in the imperial court), symphonic intermezzo "La Battaglia" and expanded act 5 as an epilogue, adding the duet "Lontano, lontano" to act 3 in the process. Faust was changed from a [[baritone]] to a [[tenor]].

The revised version was premiered in [[Teatro Comunale di Bologna|Bologna]] on 4 October 1875, this time sung by what is generally regarded to be a very fine cast, and was an immediate success. This change in reception is thought to be partly due to Boito's revisions making the opera more traditional in style, and also to the Italian audience having become familiar with, and more willing to accept, developments in opera associated with those of [[Richard Wagner]].

Boito made further minor revisions during 1876, and this version was first performed at the [[Teatro Rossini (Venice)|Teatro Rossini]] in Venice on 13 May 1876. The first British performance took place at [[Her Majesty's Theatre]], London on 6 July 1880 and the American premiere was on 16 November 1880 in Boston.<ref>[[Stanley Sadie|Sadie, Stanley]] (1997), p. 415</ref><ref name="grove"/> Thereafter, Boito continued to make small changes until the final definitive production in Milan on 25 May 1881.