Corigliano: The Ghosts of Versailles (2-CD + Documentary DVD/Blu-Ray)

Composer: John Corigliani
Artists: Teresa Perrotta, Jonathan Bryan, Kayla Siembieda, Ben Schaefer, Brian Wallin, Joanna Latini, Peter Morgan, Christian Sanders, Emily Misch, Spencer Britten, Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal, Choir & Dancers of the Glimmerglass Festival
Conductor: Joseph Colaneri
Number of Discs: 4
Label: Château de Versailles
Release Date: May 14, 2021

In purgatory, the Ghosts of Versailles are waiting impatiently for Beaumarchais’ new opera: what if he manages to save Marie Antoinette from the scaffold? Here is Count Almaviva, the famous Figaro, and also Rosina and Cherubino, plunged into a thousand twists and turns to make the famous Queen’s Necklace disappear, thwarting the spies of the Revolution. But the situation escapes its creator, and Beaumarchais must himself become involved in the trial of the Queen with whom he is in love.

With assumed brio, Corigliano’s music navigates between Mozart and Rossini, and takes the audience into an unexpected opera-within-an-opera, in which all the characters are familiar to us! The Ghosts of Versailles are indeed there, and will fulfill their destiny once again.

This unique opera triumphantly premiered in 1991 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and was predestined for the stage of the Royal Opera of Versailles, for which no doubt Beaumarchais had written this story.

Also included is a bonus documentary, Of Rage and Remembrance, on John Corigliano’s Symphony No. 1.

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