Château du Versailles Spectacles releases a brand new multimedia recording of John Corigliano and William M. Hoffman's landmark opera The Ghosts of Versailles worldwide May 14 — arriving 251 years after the marriage of Marie-Antoinette and Louis in May 1770 which took place in the very same legendary theater in which this production was performed, filmed, and recorded.
This colorful new staging by Jay Lesenger was presented at Versailles in December 2019, in its French premiere, after its celebrated run at Glimmerglass Festival the previous summer.
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Château de Versailles Spectacles
at the French premiere
An iconic figure in American music, his masterpiece The Ghosts of Versailles is finally being performed in France, and John Corigliano makes Versailles tremble…William M. Hoffman’s libretto is full of imagination and historical references…A huge success.
Thierry Hillériteau, Le Figaro
12th December 2019
The ghosts are reborn tonight in their dwelling at Versailles…The virtuosity of this story, which superimposes such a variety of layers, is found in the score, with its immense richness of timbres, and musical interpretation. The major female vocal roles recall the vocal greatness of Strauss…A loving embrace, acclaimed by the public of Versailles…finally reunited with its ghosts.
Charles Arden, Olyrix
12th December 2019
A lyrical masterpiece by this American composer…It was time that this piece was performed in France, a fortiori at the Royal Opera at the Château de Versailles, Summoning the ghosts of Susanna, Figaro, Almaviva and Rosine and cheerfully borrowing from Mozart and Rossini, this score shines particularly brightly in the very place that inspired it.
Diapason Magazine
…the talented, enthusiastic, and experienced company from the Glimmerglass Festival made a persuasive case for this most American treatment of the Old World.
Susan Brodie, Classical Voice North America
12th December 2019
at the Glimmerglass Festival
The story of Figaro continues, sort of, in the delightful romp “The Ghosts of Versailles,” which opened in a new production Saturday night at the Glimmerglass Festival. William Hoffman’s libretto imagines Marie Antoinette languishing in heaven, bored to death. To amuse her, the smitten Beaumarchais produces a sequel to his previous hits, “The Barber of Seville” and “The Marriage of Figaro.” John Corigliano’s score places the ghosts in clouds of modern dissonance, while the opera within the opera is a quick moving pastiche on Rossini and Mozart.
Joseph Dalton, Times Union
15th July 2019
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