The Ghosts of Versailles
The Ghosts of Versailles is an opera in two acts, with music by John Corigliano to an English libretto by William M. Hoffman. The Metropolitan Opera had commissioned the work from Corigliano in 1980 in celebration of its 100th anniversary, with the premiere scheduled for 1983. Corigliano and Hoffman took as the starting point for the opera the play La Mère coupable (The Guilty Mother) by Pierre Beaumarchais.[1] They took seven years to complete the opera, past the initial deadline. The opera received its premiere on December 19, 1991 at the Metropolitan Opera, with the production directed by Colin Graham. The premiere run of seven performances was sold out.[2][3] The original cast included Teresa Stratas, Håkan Hagegård, Renée Fleming, Gino Quilico, and Marilyn Horne. The Metropolitan Opera revived the opera in the 1994-1995 season.[4]
Corigliano considers this work a "grand opera buffa"[1] because it incorporates both elements of the Grand Opera style (large chorus numbers, special effects) and the silliness of the opera buffa style. Commentators have noted how the opera satirises and parodies accepted operatic conventions.[5][6]
Performance history
Lyric Opera of Chicago staged the opera in the 1995-1996 season in the first performances outside of the Metropolitan Opera, in a lightly revised version that cut some expensive aspects of the Met's production, including an onstage orchestra.
Opera Theatre of Saint Louis produced the opera in its 2009 season, in partnership with Vancouver Opera (which will present the Canadian and west coast premiere in its 2011-12 season) and with the Wexford Festival Opera.
In 2008, on Corigliano's recommendation, St. Louis Opera Theatre engaged composer John David Earnest to rework the score for chamber orchestra — in order to make it suitable for performances in small houses. The premiere performance of that version took place the following year at St. Louis Opera Theatre.
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere Cast, 19 December 1991 (Conductor: James Levine) |
|---|---|---|
| Marie Antoinette | soprano | Teresa Stratas |
| Beaumarchais | baritone | Håkan Hagegård |
| Figaro | baritone | Gino Quilico |
| Susanna | mezzo-soprano | Judith Christin |
| Rosina | soprano | Renée Fleming |
| Bégearss | tenor | Graham Clark |
| Count Almaviva | tenor | Peter Kazaras |
| Florestine | soprano | Tracy Dahl |
| Léon | tenor | Neil Rosenshein |
| Samira | mezzo-soprano | Marilyn Horne |
| Louis XVI | bass | James Courtney |
| Woman in a Hat | mezzo-soprano | Jane Shaulis |
| Cherubino | mezzo-soprano | Stella Zambalis |
| Suleyman Pasha | bass | Ara Berberian |
Synopsis
The opera is set in an afterlife existence of the Versailles court of Louis XVI. In order to cheer up the ghost of Marie Antoinette, who is upset about having been beheaded, the ghost of the playwright Beaumarchais stages an opera (obviously based on La Mère coupable, although described by Beaumarchais as a new composition) using the characters and situations from his first two Figaro plays.
In this new opera-within-an-opera, Count Almaviva is in Paris as Ambassador from Spain. Together with his trusty manservant Figaro, he tries to rescue Marie Antoinette from the French Revolution. When things go awry, Beaumarchais himself enters the opera and — with the invaluable help of Figaro's wife Susanna — rescues the queen.
Act 1
The ghosts of the court of Louis XVI arrive at the theatre of Versailles. Bored and listless, even the King is uninterested when Beaumarchais arrives and declares his love for the Queen. As Marie Antoinette is too haunted by her execution to reciprocate his love, Beaumarchais announces his intention to change her fate through the plot of his new opera 'A Figaro for Antonia.'
The cast of the opera-within-the-opera is introduced. It is twenty years after the events of The Marriage of Figaro. Figaro appears, chased by his many creditors now aging but still as wily and clever as ever. He lists his many achievements in a lengthy aria. Meanwhile, Count Almaviva is engaged in a secret plan to sell Marie Antoinette's jeweled necklace to the English Ambassador for the Queen's freedom. The Count, Beaumarchais explains, is estranged from his wife Rosina due to her affair, years earlier, with the now-dead Cherubino, an assignation which produced a son, Leon. Leon wants to marry Florestine, Almaviva's illegitimate daughter, but the Count has forbidden the union as retribution for his wife's infidelity and has promised Florestine instead to his friend Patrick Henri Bégearss.
Figaro enrages the Count by warning him that his trusted Bégearss is in fact a revolutionary spy. Figaro is fired, but overhears Bégearss and his dimwitted servant Wilhelm hatching a plot to arrest the Count that evening at the Turkish Embassy when he sells the Queen's necklace to the English Ambassador.
The Queen is still depressed, and Beaumarchais explains his intentions: Figaro will thwart the villains, the young lovers will be allowed to marry, and she herself will be freed and put on a ship bound for the new world, where he, Beaumarchais, will be waiting to entertain her. The King takes offense at this.
Beaumarchais enchants the Queen with a flashback, twenty years earlier, to Rosina's affair with Cherubino. In a beautiful garden, the lovers sing a rapturous duet, echoed by Beaumarchais and Marie Antoinette, who nearly kiss. They are interrupted by the King, who, enraged, challenges Beaumarchais to a duel. After a brief bit of sword-play, the King runs Beaumarchais through, but the wound has no effect, because they are all already dead. The Ghosts find this hilarious, and have great fun stabbing each other.
Beaumarchais changes the scene to the Turkish Embassy, in a wild party thrown by the Turkish Ambassador, Suleyman Pasha. Bégearss readies his men to arrest the Count, but Figaro intercepts the plot by infiltrating the party, dressed as a dancing girl. During the outrageous performance of the Turkish singer Samira, Figaro steals the necklace from the Count before the sale can take place, and runs away.
Act 2
Figaro returns only to defy Beaumarchais's intention that he return the necklace to the queen, as he wants to sell it to help the Almavivas escape. To put the story back on course, Beaumarchais enters the opera and shocks Figaro into submission by allowing him to witness the unfair trial of Marie.
The Count, swayed by his wife's wishes, rescinds his offer to Bégearss of his daughter's hand. Even though Figaro gives him the necklace, Bégearrs is enraged and sends the Spaniards to the prison where Marie Antoinette lingers.
Beaumarchais and Figaro, the only two to escape, arrive at the prison to try to rescue the Almavivas. They are shortly followed by Bérgeass whom Figaro denounces to the revolutionaries, revealing that he has kept the necklace rather than using it to feed the poor. Bégearss is carried off, the Almavivas escape to America and Beaumarchais is left with the keys to the Queen's cell. But the power of his love has made the Queen accept her fate and she refuses to let Beaumarchais alter the course of history. Marie is executed, and the pair is united in Paradise.
Recordings
The only recordings are a VHS of a televised production performed by the Metropolitan Opera in 1993 and a Constant Linear Velocity (CLV) LaserDisc of the same performance. The LaserDisc, published by Deutsche Grammophon, also includes a monochrome printed libretto. The LaserDisc version of the opera provides a digital sound track plus enhanced video resolution over the VHS recording.[7] Graham Clark was nominated for an Emmy Award for his performance as Bégearss in this video.
As of October 28th, 2010, a video recording of the opera as performed on January 10, 1992 is available on, "Met Player", the Metropolitan Opera's online opera streaming website. [8]
Notes
- ^ a b Allan Kozinn (15 December 1991). "Rushing in Where Copland Feared to Tread". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-06-20.
- ^ Edward Rothstein (21 December 1991). "For the Met's Centennial, A Gathering of Ghosts". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-06-20.
- ^ Allan Kozinn (13 January 1992). "Why Met's GhostsWill Be Disembodied Until 1994-95 Season". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-06-20.
- ^ Edward Rothstein (5 April 1995). "A Young Opera Heavy With the Past". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-06-20.
- ^ Bernard Holland (31 December 1991). "The Ghosts of Versailles Fills The Tumbrels With Conventions". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-06-20.
- ^ Edward Rothstein (5 January 1992). "At the Met, Ghosts Come to Applaud Ghosts". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-06-20.
- ^ Croissant, Charles (March 1994). "Video Review: John Corigliano, The Ghosts of Versailles". Notes (2nd Ser.). 50 (3): 1057–1058. Retrieved 2008-05-18.
- ^ The Ghosts of Versailles (Jan. 10, 1992) - The Metropolitan Opera in New York