GounodA big night Thursday: the Portland Opera season opens with Gounod's Faust. I can't wait to see/hear it. "A deal with the devil" is a story motif used many, many times in all variety of settings. Perhaps the most successful renditions are:
Goethe
The radio has been playing a lot of music from the opera in recent weeks, just teasing my appetite and getting me ready for Thursday night. And I will be ready.
MarloweThere are playwrights -- I am one of them -- who believe that screenwriters made a "Faustian pact" with the film industry through their union, the Writers Guild of America (WGA). For great wealth, they gave up all artistic integrity and control of their work.
A playwright always retains ownership of his scripts: he leases performance rights to them. A screenwriter sells his script outright. Hence anything can be done with it afterwards. Although it's done all the time, legally a director or actor can't change a word in a stage play without permission of the playwright. This is why many directors prefer their playwrights dead.
Which is why I hope for a great revival of my work after I'm gone ha ha.
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