Concert Hall, Brighton Dome, Friday May 21

Hector Berlioz's masterpiece is a monument to the Romantic movement, described by its composer as a "dramatic legend".

Berlioz fell under the spell of Goethe's Faust after reading the first part in 1828.

Having written a stage work of eight scenes, he sent it to Goethe for approval - a bad move because the poet showed it to a composer friend who was appalled at Berlioz's outrageous music, causing Berlioz to withdraw the work.

Fortunately for us, he later reworked it into La Damnation, now more of an oratorio than an opera.

It was premiered at the Paris Opera-Comique in 1846 and came to London two years later.

It is an almost impossible work to stage other than as a concert performance, requiring an 80-piece orchestra and a chorus of 160, as well as four soloists.

For this production, French conductor Jacques Mercier returns to Brighton with his new orchestra, the National Orchestra de Lorraine, the Brighton Festival Chorus and four very fine soloists, Bonaventura Bottone, Matthew Best, Donald Maxwell and Norah Gubisch.

These forces lead the audience through this fantastic story, beginning with a quiet picture of rural life and continuing with a rousing chorus of students and soldiers, beautiful love arias, a vicious pack of demons and drunken scenes in a wine cellar complete with rats and fleas.

Faust's love for the gentle Marguerite is used by Mephistopheles to drag him on a wild horse chase towards his doom. And with the work's colour, humour, variety and its villainy, the audience too will join the massed voices on a roller-coaster ride to hell.

The Damnation Of Faust is one of the most exhilarating pieces in the classical repertoire and ends the celebrations of the centenary of Berlioz's birth.

Sponsored by University of Sussex.

Friday May 21, 8pm. Tickets £10 to £28.50.