Faust first became popular in this Italian version with libretto by Achille de Lauzières, before being fully accepted in the original French. The Italian text seems to suit the music so much better! Among the many recordings of this opera, this 1920 La Scala performance, made for HMV, must be amongst the best - the main soloists are superb and despite the age of the recording (made acoustically) come through clear due to the wonderful audio restoration work of Andrew Ros