Video: First Look at LOHENGRIN at The Metropolitan Opera

Wagner's soaring masterpiece Lohengrin has returned to the Met stage after 17 years, in a new production by internationally renowned director François Girard. Girard, creating his third Wagner production at the house following his revelatory Parsifal, collaborates with award-winning multidisciplinary artist and designer Tim Yip-who won an Oscar for art direction on the 2000 movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and is also known for his work on the 2004 Athens Olympics closing ceremony. Yip has created sets and costumes that convey the otherworldly dimension of this opera. The production runs through April 1st.

Get a first look at footage below!

Conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Met's Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director, the production features a cast led by tenor Piotr Beczała in the title role of the swan knight. This is Beczała's second appearance at the Met this season, following his critically acclaimed portrayal of Loris Ipanoff in the new production of Giordano's Fedora. The stellar cast includes internationally renowned sopranos Tamara Wilson and Elena Stikhina sharing the role of the virtuous duchess Elsa, who is falsely accused of murder, and soprano Christine Goerke as the cunning sorceress Ortrud, who seeks to undermine Elsa. Distinguished bass-baritone Evgeny Nikitin is Ortrud's power-hungry husband, Telramund, and acclaimed bass Günther Groissböck is King Heinrich. Critics applauded Groissböck's portrayal of King Filippo II in Verdi's Don Carlo earlier this season, and his next performance will be as Baron Ochs in Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, opening March 27. Conductor Patrick Furrer leads the cast on March 10 and April 1.

Led by Girard, the creative team also includes set and costume designer Yip, lighting designer David Finn, projection designer Peter Flaherty, choreographer Serge Bennathan, and dramaturg Serge Lamothe.

The March 18 performance will be transmitted to cinemas worldwide as part of the company's The Met: Live in HD series. The March 2 and 18 performances of Lohengrin will be broadcast live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SiriusXM Channel 355. Audio from the March 2 performance will also be streamed live on the Met's website, metopera.org. The performance on March 18 will also be broadcast over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network.

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