NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) — Dmitri Shostakovich's opera "The Nose" makes a belated Metropolitan Opera premiere on Friday and even before the reviews are in, performances have nearly sold out.

The new production of "The Nose," based on a short story by Nikolai Gogol, is staged and designed by South African artist William Kentridge whose film installations, prints and drawings are currently exhibited at New York's Museum of Modern Art.

Under the baton of Valery Gergiev, Tony Award-winner Brazilian opera star Paulo Szot will make his Metropolitan Opera debut as Kovalyov, a resident of St. Petersburg, who awakes one morning to find his nose missing.

Performances are at The Metropolitan House at Lincoln Center in New York on March 5, 11, 13, 18, 23, and 25.