One of the Metropolitan Opera’s popular open rehearsals will take place on November 4 with the final dress rehearsal of Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust, Robert Lepage’s unusual production of a work that was last performed at the Met in 1907. With Met stars Marcello Giordani as Faust, Susan Graham as Marguerite, and John Relyea as Méphistophélès and conducted by James Levine, the production utilizes new theatrical technology to present Berlioz’s hallucinatory vision of the Faust tale.
The second in a series of open rehearsals this season that are supported by Agnes Varis, a managing director of the Met’s Board of Directors, and her husband, Karl Leichtman, the dress rehearsal begins at 11:00 am; the doors to the house open at 10:30 am. Three thousand free tickets will be available on a first-come, first-served basis at the Met box office, beginning at noon on Sunday, November 2. The Open House will include a panel discussion led by Mr. Lepage, who is known for combining new theatrical innovations such as motion control and interactive scenery together with more traditional theatrical techniques. Lepage, who is making his debut at the Met, regards this production as a creative launching pad for the new Ring Cycle which he is directing at the Met, beginning in 2010. The premiere of the new production of Faust opens on Friday, November 7 and runs into December. It will be broadcast as one of the Met’s award-winning live high-definition transmissions into movie theaters on Saturday, November 22.Videos