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.

Whoopi Goldberg "GLEE" Role Mixes Master Class and Leontyne Price

Whoopi Goldberg joined the cast of Fox's Glee for three episodes in May. The Academy Award-winning actress plays the character of Carmen Tibideaux, a theater veteran and professor at The New York Academy of the Dramatic Arts that Rachel (Lea Michele) and Kurt (Chris Colfer) have applied to and must audition for entrance. "Carmen is the Dean of

The original turban diva: Ms. Price

Vocal Performance and Song Interpretation at NYADA and is an extremely accomplished performer and singer. She is generally considered to be admonishing and strict, but kind enough and very open to new students and ideas. Carmen makes her appearance being escorted into the hall by Will Schuester to oversee the auditions of Kurt and Rachel. Backstage, both Rachel and Kurt show extreme anxiety over the knowledge of their NYADA educator as she is revealed to be one of NYADA's most infamous alumni, a profound Broadway and opera performed and the recently appointed Dean of Vocal Performance and Song Interpretation travelling around the country to handpick the students for her own inaugural class." It is obvious from her name (a strange

Leontyne Price with Oscar de la Renta

cross between Bizet's opera Carmen and an real life opera-loving pianist Jean Yves-Thibaudet) to her signature turbans (made popular by soprano Leontyne Price), that her character is meant to invoke memories of Terrance McNally's play Master Class which re-tells the story of Maria Callas at Juilliard in the early 1970s. Although not quite on that level of grandiosity (the role was played by the likes of Zoe Caldwell, Faye Dunaway, Patti Lupone, and most recently, Tyne Daly), Ms. Goldberg does a fine job of portraying a diva with an elevated sense of importance bestowing her wisdom of the human voice and its production. Continue watching for more of her fine character through the end of May. [Source, Source] A few more images of Leontyne Price in turban, after the jump.

Treasures of NYC: Patti Lupone, Leonard Bernstein, Risë Stevens

"Tony Award-winning actress Patti LuPone takes New York-area residents on a tour of Lincoln Center in Treasures of New York,"which airs July 14 on PBS. Treasures of New York: Lincoln Center with Patti LuPone brings the Broadway veteran back to her academic and performing roots. LuPone is among the first graduates of the drama division of the Juilliard School (located on the Lincoln Center Campus) and also starred in the revival of Anything Goes and her solo evening Matters of the Heart at the Vivian Beaumont Theater. The actress was also married on the Beaumont stage. The 8 PM special promises not only history of Lincoln Center, but also stories of LuPone's achievements at the renowned facility. The presentation highlights the history and recent renovation of the Lincoln Center campus, including vintage footage of Leonard Bernstein and opera star Risë Stevens....Treasures of New York: Lincoln Center with Patti LuPone debuts at 8 PM on WNET Thirteen July 14, with re-airing to follow July 28 at 7 PM on WLIW21." [Source]

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