Faust

In this first act of Gounod's Faust, based loosely on Goethe's legendary story, Mephistopholes visits Faust in his study, where he has devoted his life to the pursuit of science and scholarship. Faust has recently tried to end it all by poisoning himself, but Mephistopholes gives him a (dubious) reason to live.

You can read more about the opera here.

You can listen to the recording here.