[1] Abraxas was premiered by the Bavarian State Opera at the Prinzregententheater in Munich, Germany on 6 June 1948 in a production using designs by Wolfgang Znamenacek.
A third version by the choreographer Tom Schilling premiered at the Semperoper in 1957 and was later staged a second time to positive reviews at the Komische Oper Berlin.
[1] The plot of the Abraxas was taken from Heinrich Heine's Der Doctor Faust; an opera libretto he wrote for the impresario Benjamin Lumley but which ultimately never made it to the stage.
Heine's story is based on the Faust legend, and was notable for changing the Mephistopheles character from a male role into a female one.
In the ballet the female devil convinces Faust to sell his soul in exchange for sexual fulfillment and restoration of youth.