Robert Peters replies to me:

>>Meyerbeer turned down a libretto by Barbier and Carre with the
>>remark that Faust was "the Ark of the Covenant, not to be profaned with
>>music."
>
>That is a strange remark from Meyerbeer since the Faust drama is
>interwoven with music and whole parts of it, especially in the Second
>Part, are written as a kind of Singspiel.  By the way, Goethe wrote a
>lot of Singspiele and a second part of the Magic Flute.

Also Meyerbeer had no problems with sensationalism as such.  I think of
the skating scene in Le Prophete and the bathing in Les Huguenots.  What
it shows you is the reverence in which Goethe's poem was held, even (as
you point out) to the extent that it goes against Goethe's aim.  Part II
is in great part a libretto, and I dimly recall reading that Goethe
*wanted* music for these sections.

By the way, there's an odd setting of the "Dom" scene from Part I by
Schubert - baritone, mezzo, chorus, and piano.

Steve Schwartz