West Coast Premiere of The Ghosts of Versailles at Los Angeles Opera
John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles was first given at New York’s Metro-politan Opera back in 1991; but aside from a Chicago Lyric Opera production two decades ago, it has henceforth been presented only in scaled-down versions at various music festivals. On Saturday, February 7, 2015, Los Angeles Opera opened an extravagant, full-scale production in Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of The Ghosts of Versailles, which received its West Coast premiere. This work was dubbed by composer Corigliano as a “grand opera buffa.” Grand it certainly is – and expensive to produce -- sporting a huge cast, an enormous orchestra, lavish sets, an opera-within-an-opera, and a wild Turkish embassy scene with a mock elephant. -more-
