With all the options available nowadays for experiencing Met performances, from hightech showings in movie theaters to multiple options for home listening, the annual Met in the Parks performances, which began Wednesday night with Gounod’s “Faust” after Tuesday’s scheduled performance of “La Bohème” was rained out, still retain an appeal. There is the sociability, for one thing. Up in the sparsely attended VIP seats, the audience sat politely, its attention focused largely on the performance. Further out amid the blankets, the mood was mellower as picnickers, having finished eating and drinking, conversed quietly among themselves. Talking during operas is an old tradition, as accounts of 18th- and 19th-century performances attest.

For those more concerned with the music, interest was heightened by the fact that two of the leading roles were taken by singers making their first appearances with the company. The amplification makes it difficult to get a real feeling for the quality of the voices, but the tenor David Pomeroy gave a fine account of the title role. He delivered the French language ably and struck an apt balance between the kind of Faust oriented toward cultivated French singing and one who projects the character’s emotions though forthright, generous vocalism.

The rising young soprano Katie Van Kooten, an American who has made her career mainly in London, contributed a highly appealing Marguerite, offering a fluent, securely sung Jewel Song, graced by a good trill, and some nicely floated phrases in the Love Duet. She was also strong in projecting Marguerite’s anguish in the Church Scene.

In fact, the whole performance was agreeably sung under the knowing baton of Maurizio Benini, who omitted the prelude but otherwise offered a reasonably full account of the score. The one familiar presence, James Morris as Méphistophélès, sounded a bit unsteady in his opening line of “Me voici,” but quickly improved, and delivered a strong performance, neither too debonair nor too villainous. The baritone Hung Yun invested Valentin’s aria with lyrical grace, and Kate Lindsey brought a handsomely resonate mezzo and keenly accented words to the trouser role of Siébel.

In smaller parts, Jane Bunnell contributed her well-practiced Marthe, and Keith Miller, as Wagner, sounded like Méphistophélès in the making.

A Central Park performance of “La Bohème” will not be rescheduled, but there will be opportunities to hear it, as well as “Faust,” in other parks in and around the city as part of the series, which runs through June 23.