[ Château de Versailles Spectacles / 3 CD/DVD ]
Release Date: Friday 14 May 2021
This item is currently out of stock. It may take 6 or more weeks to obtain from when you place your order as this is a specialist product.
What if Beaumarchais could change the Revolution victims' past? Gathered in purgatory, the Versailles ghosts, with Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI on the first row, impatiently wait for his new play that will do them justice. The objective is clear: by preventing the Affair of the Diamond Necklace, Beaumarchais is confident he will save Marie-Antoinette! Enter Count Almaviva, the famous Figaro, and also Rosina and Cherubino, all carried off in an eventful plot centred on the elimination of the splendid and fated necklace, with many twists and turns, as the revolutionary spies try to get it back! However, the situation spins out of its creator's control and Beaumarchais himself must step on stage and get involved in the Queen's trial to try to save the Queen - with whom he has fallen in love …
With assumed brilliance, the music travels between Mozart and Rossini, dramma giocoso and historical subject, carrying spectators away into an unexpected opera, whose characters are all familiar to us! The Versailles ghosts are there and will accomplish their destiny again… This one of a king opera was a highlight of the New York Metropolitan Opera in 1991; it was commissioned to celebrate its centenary from the composer John Corigliano and the librettist William Hoffman.
Boxed set also includes a bonus documentary.
"Colaneri's conducting deserves much of the credit, pointing up the most disruptive harmonies while giving the singers their head in the lyrical ensembles that come to dominate the piece" Gramophone Editor's Choice September 2021
"You cannot but admire the commitment that Joseph Colaneri and the musicians of the Orchestra de l'Opéra Royal bring to a score that looks as much backwards as forwards." BBC Music