The MET Offers LA SONNAMBULA Free Open Dress Rehearsal 2/27

The Metropolitan Opera presents a free open dress rehearsal on February 27 of Mary Zimmerman's new production of Bellini's La Sonnambula, starring Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Flórez.

The third in a series of open rehearsals this season supported by Agnes Varis, a managing director of the Met's Board of Directors, and her husband, Karl Leichtman, the dress rehearsal begins Friday, February 27 at 11:00 am; the doors will open at 10:00am.

Three thousand free tickets will be available (2 tickets per person) on a first-come, first-served basis at the Met box office, beginning at 11:00 am on Sunday, February 22.

The premiere of the new production of La Sonnambula opens on Monday, March 2 and runs through April 3. It will be broadcast as part of The Met: Live in HD series, transmitted live into movie theaters in 36 countries around the world on Saturday, March 21.

The La Sonnambula open rehearsal is among a number of free public events offered by the Met this season. In September, the company presented a free concert of the Verdi Requiem in tribute to Luciano Pavarotti, as well as transmitting its opening-night gala performance onto multiple screens in Times Square and at Fordham University's Lincoln Center campus. In October, thousands of high school and college students attended the final dress rehearsal of Doctor Atomic, the season's first Open House, which featured an onstage question-and-answer session with composer John Adams. On November 4 following the final dress rehearsal of Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust, a panel discussion was led by visionary director Robert Lepage and his design team.

Agnes Varis and Karl Leichtman also underwrite the Met's popular rush ticket program, and, along with the Met Board of Directors, the newly popular Weekend rush ticket program.