Gaetano Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor," which opened the Metropolitan Opera's 2007-08 season in an, at times, wrongheaded new production by Mary Zimmerman, returned to the repertory this fall with a new leading quartet, headed with distinction by Diana Damrau and Piotr Beczala, and paced by Marco Armiliato. I heard the sixth of this season's 11 performances, the penultimate one with three of the principals, on October 22, the 125th anniversary of the opening of the Met, in 1883, with Charles Gounod's "Faust." ("Lucia" first entered the Met repertoire two days later.)

Assisted by a silent spectre, enacting the story Lucia tells, Damrau sang entrance cavatina "Regnava nel silenzio" (Silence reigned) with agreeable lyricism, augmenting it with some gutsy low notes and an inventive cadenza. After a vehement recitative, she approached cabaletta "Quando, rapito in estasi" (When, transported in ecstasy) with playful exuberance, urging Michaela Martens, as Alisa, to share her excitement and prompting her confidante to shush her, when in full cry, lest she alert anyone to her secret tryst with Edgardo. After bringing her aria to a bubbly conclusion, Damrau found an apt foil in Beczala, who lent his dashing Byronic hero a solid lyric tenor, with some not inappropriate baritonal metal in it. When Beczala made ready to leave her, after his solo verse of their gracefully sung "Verranno a te sull'aure" (Coming to you on the breezes), Damrau pulled his cape off him, throwing it on the ground to detain him, before they blended voices in the final verse.

In Act Two, Damrau's heroine clashed dramatically with newcomer Vladimir Stoyanov, as her brother, Enrico, who sounded more polished in their duet, "Il pallor funesto, orrendo ... Se tradirmi tu potrai" (The deadly pallor ... If you can betray me), than he did in his demanding opening scene aria, "Cruda funesta smania ... La pietade in suo favore" (A crude and deadly fury ... Pity for her), which was marred by labored top notes.

In a breathtaking Mad Scene, "Il dolce suono ... Spargi d'amaro pianto" (The sweet sound ... Shed a bitter tear), accompanied by the unearthly sound of the glass harmonica, wielded by Cecilia Brauer and, in the cadenza, by flute, played by Stephanie C. Mortimore, Damrau assaulted Alisa, imagining, in her delirium, that her companion was a phantom, separating her from her beloved Edgardo, and sang, supine, as she hallucinated about pleasanter times. The soprano capped cavatina and cabaletta here with silvery high E-flats.

In ringing tone, Beczala denounced Lucia for her supposed treachery in marrying another, confronted her brother and accepted his challenge to a duel in the restored Wolf's Crag tower scene, anticipated taking his place among the tombs of his ancestors and, as Lucia's ghost helped him die, sang of joining her on her journey heavenward.

Ildar Abdrazakov, who portrays the chaplain, Raimondo, in all 2008-09 hearings, brought woolly bass tone to his unwise counsel to Lucia to give in to Enrico's wishes and, in somewhat clearer sound, reported on the disaster of Lucia's murder of unwanted bridegroom, Arturo. Sean Panikkar, as Lucia's ill-starred spouse, offered Enrico and the wedding guests greetings in bright tenor tone. Ronald Naldi, as Normanno, capably completed the cast.

Raimondo still rejoices over Lucia's consent to the marriage to the distracting accompaniment of servants preparing the hall for the forthcoming ceremony. The gratuitous figure of a wedding photographer still all but ruins the great sextet, "Chi mi frena in tal momento?" (Who restrains me in such a moment), by arranging the family for a photo during it. And a doctor still gives Lucia an injection midway through "Spargi d'amaro pianto."

Damrau, Beczala and Stoyanov repeat their roles on October 25 at 1 p.m. Anna Netrebko, Rolando Villazón and Mariusz Kwiecien replace them in the new year, in performances on January 26, 29 and February 3 at 8 pm and February 7 at 1 p.m. Damrau sings her first Met Gilda, in Giuseppe Verdi's "Rigoletto," and Beczala, his first local Lenski, in Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin," later this season. Director Zimmerman is responsible for the upcoming new production of Vincenzo Bellini's "La Sonnambula."

For tickets, priced from $15 to 375, go to www.metopera.org, call 212/362-6000, or visit the Met box office at Lincoln Center. $20 rush tickets are available at the box office on the day of performance.