You can drastically alter your persepective in a chapter break.You can also make changes in perspective in a section break. (seperated by a blank line denoted by a # in a manuscript)
Depending on what you mean by a "scene" and switching to past tense.
Introductions such a prologues are frequently told in a completely different voice/perspective/tense than the rest of a story. This would be a small chapter preceeding the first chapter.
Frequently the first section of a chapter will be an expository narrative, sometimes italicized, told in present tense. This would be like a blurb from an encyclopedia (or journal or diary). Then the regular story follows after a section break.
As to "official" or "classical", these terms mean nothing. In fiction, the rules are incredibly fluid. Just because someone has done it before doesn't make it "right" and just because they haven't doesn't make it "wrong".
[This message has been edited by pantros (edited December 28, 2005).]