"Dear David, for Krauts like my parents Faust was not an opera but a weighty tome. You are giving Weidmann too much credit."

And:

"I loved your comment "I will always have a soft spot for a central banker who knows his opera." It made me remember your opera reviews of old times, sadly missed!

"However I do have to point out that the Faust which Jens Weidmann was referring to was the serious literary creation of the German giant Goethe, not the lightweight musical adaptation by the Frenchman Gounod!"

David Fuller's view You are both right, of course, in saying that Jen Weidmann was referring to Goethe's Faust. He said so in the lead article which I posted and quoted yesterday. However, as he is interested in the story, my guess is that he has also seen and enjoyed the Faust operas. I never tackled the book but I really do like Charles Gounod's opera based on this wonderful story. The Royal Opera House in Covent Garden has a very good staging of it which I have always enjoyed and Bryn Terfel is a fine Mephistopheles

You may recall my 2004 review of Hector Berlioz's, La Damnation de Faust, staged in concert by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. I think many subscribers tolerated the reviews, which I eventually concluded were an indulgence.