The Met press office has just confirmed that the company’s 2020 revival of La Damnation de Faust has been converted into four concert performances January 25 – February 8, with scheduled performances February 4, 12, and 15 canceled. The schedule change “is driven by the unanticipated technical demands of reviving the Met’s staged production, impossible to accommodate within the company’s production schedule.” 

It should be noted that the “impossible to accommodate” production was directed by Robert Lepage, the revival of whose Ring this past season required the reduction of the Met’s usual roster of six new productions to four. Lepage’s production of Die Zauberflöte is scheduled to arrive at the Met in 2020-2021… but don’t hold your breath.