Alexey Gorshenev presents the musical tragedy "Faust-2"

For the first time in the world, the second part of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's work "Faust" has acquired a new form — it was adapted into a musical tragedy by composer Alexey Gorshenev. The first act of the audio play "Faust-2" is available for listening on all streaming platforms, the second act will be released in early June 2026.

A large-scale project that became a continuation of the first part of the musical tragedy "Faust", released in 2022. Alexey Gorshenev, the author of the idea, has been working on such a large form for the last four years and admits that the most difficult process was the process of combining and adapting Goethe's ideas and texts from the book language to the song language, which is more understandable to the listener.

"I had my own artistic vision of the final result, and since the sound picture you hear can be shaped and modeled in different ways, I had to learn sound engineering. It's good that I like it, I've been mixing albums from the band "Kukryniksy". I would like to express my special gratitude to the St. Petersburg sound gurus, Yuri Smirnov and Andrey Alyakrinsky, without whom I would have worked even longer. The main difficulty in working with texts was that Goethe uses both his usual style and the Greek model. Our Greek model is represented by blank verse. Since rhyme is mandatory in the song genre, I had to write all the lyrics for some compositions myself, based on the author's ideas. I would have been very happy to use third—party solutions, but I found that I was the only person who undertook a complete interpretation of the second part of Faust," says Gorshenev.

And indeed, never before has the second part of the tragedy "Faust" been adapted into various forms of art. This is due to its complexity, abundance of symbolism and allegories, as well as to the author's less adaptive thought in terms of the depth of poetry and philosophy. In his creative approach, Alexey Gorshenev combines all styles of music, and also focuses on dramatic sketches within compositions. The role of Faust is played by the musical star Rostislav Kolpakov, while Alexei took on the role of Mephistopheles.

I like the play of images, especially Mephistopheles. It's very plastic and it's a pleasure to work on it. Plus, the huge influence of philosophy as such is the search for truth and the search for a creative soul. Goethe is an undeniable genius of reflection and a fighter against the gray routine of our lives.

"Actually, this job is connected by one common meaning — do what you can. I would like to think that I, as a creative unit, am a bridge between the harsh book activities of great and complex authors and ordinary people who may not have enough time to read these works," adds the musician.

The musical tragedy includes 29 compositions and each is a separate number. Rock musicians, opera and operetta artists, and actors have also joined the project, including Nikolai Fomenko, Artur Vakha, Konstantin Kinchev, Edmund Shklyarsky, Nastya Poleva, Maria Litke, Andrey Knyazev, Evgeny Egorov, Yaroslav Bayarunas, Anna Tess, Alexey Shtykov, Oleg Garkusha, Yulia Kogan, Alexander Leontiev, Kirill Gordeev, Roman Pritula and many others.

A big anniversary concert dedicated to Alexey Gorshenev's 50th birthday will be held in St. Petersburg on June 5. The event will take place at the Ice Palace. Petersburgers will enjoy a big show, the program of which includes favorites from Alexey's projects: hits by the band "Kukryniksy" and "Gorshenev", songs from Yesenin, TODD and, of course, "Faust-2". Rostislav Kolpakov is among the invited guests. Alexey and Rostislav will perform the main theme of the musical tragedy "Faust-2" together.