Curiously Encouraging News

[Note: This post has been updated (1) as of 11:17 PM Eastern on 15 Nov. See below.]

In an era where postmodern (read, Eurotrash) stagings of the standard operatic rep are, or are fast becoming, the de facto norm at major opera houses worldwide, we find the following to be curiously encouraging news.

A watery reflection ripples beneath a boat gliding along the stage. Soldiers march over a field of grass. The blades rustle. Fire flutters above the face of a soprano singing of the burning flame of love.

Water, fire and field are all illusion, created by computers, infrared cameras, digital projectors and scrims. These uncanny scenes play out in a production of Berlioz’s Damnation de Faust, which opens Friday night at the Metropolitan Opera and introduces an unprecedented level of technological stagecraft to the house.

While video and projection entered the opera staging manual years ago, this Faust is the Met’s first interactive opera. The technology allows the singers’ motion and voices, as well as the sounds of the orchestra, to trigger and even shape video projections flashed onto the set.

[...]

The stakes here are higher than this one production. The Met has also engaged Mr. Lepage [director, Robert Lepage] to mount its first new Ring cycle since the late 1980s rendition by Otto Schenk, starting in the 2010-11 season. Both the Met and Mr. Lepage said the Faust serves as a test run for some of the techniques.

RTWT here.

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Update (11:17 PM Eastern on 15 Nov): Maybe not.