What if Beaumarchais could change the past of the victims of the Revolution? Will Marie Antoinette be able to escape her fate? In this unique work, which had its triumphant premiere in 1991 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Corigliano's music navigates between Mozart and Rossini, and takes the audience back in the myst of the French Revolution and the dreadful fate of France's last Queen! 

In purgatory, the Ghosts of Versailles are waiting impatiently for Beaumarchais’ new play: what if he manages to save Marie Antoinette from the scaffold? Here is Count Almaviva, the famous Figaro, but 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, all the characters of which are familiar to us! The Ghosts of  Versailles are indeed there, and will fulfil their destiny once again… This unique opera, triumphantly premiered in 1991 at the Metropolitan Opera of New York, was predestined for to the stage of the Royal Opera of Versailles, for which no doubt Beaumarchais had written this story which goes back in time… Two hundred and fifty years after her marriage in this mythical theatre, will Marie-Antoinette be able to escape her destiny there?

Recorded on the 7th and 8th of December 2019 at the Royal Opera of Versailles.

Choir and dancers of the Glimmerglass Festival
Orchestre de l'Opéra Royal
Joseph Colaneri conductor
Teresa Perrotta, Jonathan Bryan, Kayla Siembieda, Ben Schaefer, Brian Wallin, Joanna Latini, Peter Morgan, Christian Sanders, Emily Misch, Spencer Britten
John Corigliano (1938)
Libretto by William M. Hoffman (1939-2017)
Of Rage and Remembrance, a bonus documentary by Gerald Herman on John Corigliano's Symphony N°1


Booklet in English/French/German
Duration : DVD / Blu-Ray 2h29 – CD: 145’75