Performed by the Royal Opera Company,  the beautiful Opera Faust will be screened at the Fugard Theatre on Sunday 17 February at 2pm and 6pm.

The film, running 2 hours and 50 minutes with interval,  is sung in French with English subtitles and will be presented in full high definition with 5.1 digital dolby surround sound. The production is performed by the Royal Opera Chorus and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, under the baton of Conductor Evelino Pidò.

Gounod’s Faust was the most successful opera of its time, reaching Covent Garden in 1863, four years after its Parisian premiere, and quickly becoming a favourite of Victorian audiences. In 2004 Faust returned to The Royal Opera’s repertory with a flourish: David McVicar’s brilliantly theatrical production, played out in the Paris of the Second Empire, has given its familiar melodies, grand ensembles and epic central struggle between good and evil a new lease of life.

Charles Edwards’s splendidly varied sets conjure up Gounod’s Paris, even quoting paintings of the period, with the composer’s own internal struggle between religious devotion and passion for the theatre supplying a clever subtext.

The downfall of Faust, the philosopher tempted by the demon Méphistophélès, and the terrible consequences of his tainted love for the innocent Marguerite on both her and her brother Valentin, are charted with insight and theatrical bravura. With its devilish presentation of the Cabaret L’Enfer, where Gounod’s famous Waltz brings the second act to an eyecatching climax, this production reclaims Faust for the 21st century.

The cast includes rising star Vittorio Grigolo as the dashing Faust, René Pape as his nemesis Méphistophélès, Dmitri Hvorostovsky as the luckless Valentin and Angela Gheorghiu, returning to the role she created in this production in 2004, as the innocent Marguerite.

Bookings are through Computicket.com and the Fugard Theatre Box Office 021 461 4554. Tickets cost R100.00 per person, per screening and a cash bar is available.