Composer: John Corigliano
Performer: Peter Morgan, Jonathan Bryan, Teresa Perrotta, Ben Schaefer, Kayla Siembieda, Brian Wallin, Christian Sanders
Orchestra: Orchestre de l’Opera Royal
Conductor: Joseph Colaneri
Number of Discs: 2
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Château de Versailles Spectacles
Catalogue: CVS036
Release: 2021
Size: 1.42 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
CD 01
01. Prologue
02. Mon coursier hors d’haleine
03. All powerful Queen of Beauty and ruler of my willing heart
04. They are always with me
05. My wife was always hard to please
06. There’s Figaro! – Here we go again!
07. They wish they could kill me
08. Bravo, Beaumarchais! Brilliant!
09. Magic! It is Paris… the autumn of ninety-three
10. And, with the one million pounds, grant Her Majesty a safe refuge in the New World
11. Fool! Idiot! Moron!
12. I can’t wait to betray Almaviva
13. Oh, the lion may roar, and the eagle may soar
14. I remember, Master, I remember!
15. Poor Florestine, I pity her
16. New scene – They say New York is a lively town
17. Cherubino, Cherubino – Now we go back in time
18. Look at the gree here in the glade
19. I’ve had enough!
20. Selamüaleylüm!
21. His Excellency, the English Ambassador
22. I am in the valley and you are in the valley
23. Oomri! Limatha hajartani?
24. Tafaddaloo marhaben bi koom
CD 02
01. Hurry! Hurry! It’s late! The second act is beginning!
02. Watch. Now Figaro comes back
03. Wait! Figaro was supposed to return the necklace!
04. Damn that Figaro! He’s your husband
05. As summer brings a wistful breeze
06. And now I must go – Bless you, madam, bless you
07. What is happening?
08. Antoinette, we want your head!
09. Marie Antoinette of Lorraine and Austria
10. Monarchy. Revolution. It’s all the same to me
11. Welcome, Madeleine, Welcome
12. Remember in the chestnut trees in the gardens of the Tuileries ?
13. I hope I’m not too late for your party
14. Interlude
15. I am very well, my dear Marquis
16. O God of Love, O Lord of Light
17. We are finished!
18. Look, her breathing is diminished
19. Goodbye, Figaro. Goodbye Beaumarchais.
20. No, Beaumarchais
21. Come, Antonia
Commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera in 1980, The Ghosts of Versailles blew past its deadlines and ended up taking Corigliano and librettist William M. Hoffman 11 years to write. The work has been a great success by contemporary opera standards, with productions by multiple major American opera companies, but it has been scarce on recordings, with only an out-of-print Met video and a live Los Angeles Opera recording preceding this sumptuous 2021 release, which includes both DVD and Blu-Ray discs in the physical release. The plot involves three levels: one featuring ghosts of the Versailles court, including the executed Marie Antoinette, one with a performance of a play by Pierre Beaumarchais from the same trilogy drawn on by Mozart and Rossini in their Figaro operas, and one with historical personages of the French Revolution era. There are two orchestras, one for the opera itself and one for the play-within-an-opera. One can understand why the work’s genesis was so long, for it, unlike almost any other musically eclectic contemporary work, contains lots of little moving parts to match the eclecticism. The worlds in production are defined by lighting and costume, but Corigliano also matches Hoffman’s story with allusions to Mozart, Rossini, Turkish music (in a delightful tableau), contemporary atonality, and more. This production was recorded at Versailles itself (for which Beaumarchais wrote his original play, La Mère coupable), with the Orchestre de l’Opéra Royale, but its roots are American, in a production at upstate New York’s Glimmerglass Festival. The conductor, Joseph Colaneri, was retained, and so were most of the singers, young performers associated with Glimmerglass who deliver the lines naturally and intelligibly enough that the lack of an included libretto is not much of an issue. The Ghosts of Versailles is an opera whose meaning is still unfolding, and Corigliano contributes a booklet note that is very much relevant to the question. It is unlikely, for now, that it will receive a better production.