L.A. Opera Goes For Broke Reviving "Ghosts Of Versailles"

Patti Lupone makes an entrance

It is reported that Tony Award-winning Broadway director Darko Tresnjak researched for over a year, including a trip to Petit Trianon, before staging the opera Ghosts of Versailles at L.A. Opera which opens this evening. Sets and costumes are estimated at $1 million, but other expenses would not be discussed including fees for over 80 dancers, singers and acrobatic artists. Even composer, John Corigliano, was flown from New York to Los Angeles for rehearsals because there are so many new notations in the score. Not to mention the luxury casting of Broadway superstar Patti Lupone in the exotic role of Samira that gets 10 minutes of stage time. A planned Met revival five years ago was called off for budgetary reasons. "A good part of the money for Ghosts is coming from a gift from the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation. Gordon Getty, one of the sons of billionaire J. Paul Getty, is a composer in his own right as well as an opera fan. His representatives didn't respond to requests for comment. Ghosts has seldom been seen in its full grandeur since it debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in

Patricia Racette and Christopher Maltman

New York in 1991. In that staging, Corigliano called for two orchestras — one in the pit and one onstage — but he later reduced it to a single orchestra and made cuts for a 1995 staging at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. The composer also approved a scaled-down chamber version that has been staged at smaller companies. L.A. Opera's production, which opens Feb. 7, features the fullest version of the score that currently exists — not quite as long as the Met premiere but substantially the same work, featuring a full orchestra, according to company leaders." [Source] Tickets for the production are available here. See more beautiful photos after the jump and a complete gallery of 79 photos from the production by clicking here. To learn more about the opera, Ghosts of Versailles, go here.

Barrie Kosky Magic Flute Makes Big Splash At LA Opera

"A celebration of true love conquering all, The Magic Flute transports us into an enchanted world where good faces the forces of darkness. Under the masterful baton of James Conlon, LA Opera presents the U.S. Production Premiere of a highly inventive staging that originated at the Komische Oper Berlin, created by director Barrie Kosky in combination with the British theater group '1927,' whose humorous shows have thrilled audiences all over the world with their interaction between film animation and live-performing actors: 'A perfect mixture of all the things worth loving: silent films, the cabaret of the Weimar Republic, David Lynch, and the brothers Grimm (The Guardian, UK).' Packed with exquisite singing and stage wizardry, Mozart's delightful blend of high comedy and serious drama enchants young and old alike." This is a co-production with Minnesota Opera, where it will be performed in April. Read the New York Times review by clicking here and check out a large photo gallery of the production here. The complete LA Opera cast list is after the jump.

Watch a Cast Rehearsal For L.A. Opera's "Così Fan Tutte"

The clip features an inside look at a musical preparation for the Mozart opera with Aleksandra Kurzak, Ruxandra Donose, Saimir Pirgu and Ildebrando D'Arcangelo, led by maestro James Conlon. Check out a photo gallery of the production by clicking here. The last performance of Così Fan Tutte at Los Angeles Opera will be October 8, 2011.

Racette and Terfel Team Up Again for "Tosca" at Ravinia Festival

Maestro Conlon leads Racette and Licitra
(Photo: Patrick Gipson/Ravinia Festival)

"The trio of leads included two-thirds of the spring Metropolitan Opera cast from the Luc Bondy production that continues to stoke controversy in opera circles. At the core was a gripping, seething portrayal of the loathsome Scarpia by Bryn Terfel. The Welsh bass-baritone assumed a more static stage presence than the other cast members, yet he effortlessly commanded the full attention of a captivated audience with malevolent, coiled-spring intensity. His depiction of the sadistic police chief evolved from calm, confident brutality to wounded, vengeful fury, all evinced without bellowing or bombast. Italian tenor Salvatore Licitra has been well received at the Met and elsewhere for his idiomatic, dulcet-toned Cavaradossi. In this reading there was a hint of grain in a few top notes, as well as scenes in which he seemed needlessly risk-averse. On the whole his warm and ardent portrayal earned hearty and well-deserved kudos from his grateful admirers. Soprano Patricia Racette has also scored triumphs with leading companies in the title role, and her absorbing performance Saturday affirmed her status as a leading Tosca of our time. She wasn’t as vocally dazzling as some who have personified the celebrated singer and jealous lover, but she brought an honest dignity to a role often overwrought by helpless despair." [Source]

"The Turn of the Screw" Gets a Scrubdown For L.A. Opera

Patricia Racette stars in 1950s update
(Photo: Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times)

"Michael Kepler Meo, an impressively confident boy soprano with an eloquent musicality and a becoming stage manner, was a vulnerable Miles. Britten's score and Myfanwy Piper’s libretto suggest a boy who is more a threat, but this Miles was the modern innocent abused and wounded, seeking comfort. That played into Racette's Governess, whose hysteria proved compelling theater, if on the all-purpose side. She seemed the sort who could have been done in by just about anything. Both she and Ann Murray (Mrs. Grose) have large voices, and although they enunciated the English text admirably, they also produced a vibrato-rich blend in ensemble passages that undid them. Ashley Emerson was a striking Flora, the little angel who isn’t such a little angel. William Burden was a suave Quint and also sang the prologue with polish if without the curious edge characteristic of Britten tenors. Tamara Wilson's Miss Jessel was more a spook, coming across as having just been dredged from the lake. An odder, angrier, more mysterious Turn of the Screw can leave an audience too shaken to applaud. Saturday was a night to cheer the cleverness of a director and designer and the devotion of singers, a virtuoso instrumental ensemble and Conlon's engaged conducting." [Source]

Plácido Domingo: Birthday Gala For A Titan

Domingo with Queen Sofía and musical guests Conlon, Berganza, Terfel,  Arteta and Martínez 

A gala blowout beyond compare took place at the Teatro Real for tenor Plácido Domingo's 70th birthday. The program, performers and guest list are after the jump.