VIDEO: Patti LuPone Makes Cameo Appearance in THE GHOSTS OF VERSAILLES

Tony Award-winner Patti LuPone is making a cameo appearance in LA Opera's THE GHOSTS OF VERSAILLES now Through March 1. Below, BroadwayWorld brings you a first look at her appearance!

LA Opera proudly presents the first full-scale production in this century of John Corigliano's grand opera buffa, one of the most acclaimed operas of our time. Extravagantly scaled, gloriously tuneful, supremely touching and yet uproariously entertaining, The Ghosts of Versailles turns history on its head as love attempts to alter the course of destiny. Starring Patricia Racette and Patti LuPone. Conducted by James Conlon. For tickets visit http://www.laopera.org/ghosts.

Trapped in the spirit world, the ghost of Marie Antoinette bitterly reflects on her final suffering. Her favorite playwright tries to entertain the melancholy queen with the continuing adventures of his beloved characters from The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro. But sneaky Figaro refuses to play by the script, breaking free from the opera-within-the-opera in a surprise bid for a better life.

Patti LuPone is a two-time Tony Award winner for Evita and the 2008 production of Gypsy. Her most recent stage appearances include Broadway productions of The Anarchist and Lincoln Center Theater's musical Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown; Anna 1 in Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins for the New York City Ballet; and Joanne in the New York Philharmonic's production of Company. She made her opera debut in Jake Heggie's To Hell and Back with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and sang the title role in Marc Blitzstein's Regina at the Kennedy Center. She will be seen in the upcoming season of Showtime's Penny Dreadful and is the author of the New York Times bestseller Patti LuPone: A Memoir.

The Ghosts of Versailles was commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera, which presented the world premiere in 1991. At the time, it was the first new work to be premiered by the Met in 24 years. In 1995, the Met revived The Ghosts of Versailles, and it was also presented by Lyric Opera of Chicago that year. With its huge performing forces and staging demands, the opera has proved challenging to produce; a reduction for chamber orchestra has proven succesful in performances at Ireland's Wexford Festival and at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in 2009. LA Opera's staging, which is being recorded by Pentatone for CD release later this year, is the first professional production since the opera's 1999 European premiere to use the "standard" orchestration.

Inspired by the play The Guilty Mother by Pierre Beaumarchais, the opera incorporates the major plot elements and the characters of that play along with additional characters, including Beaumarchais himself as well as Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI. Another added character is Samira, an Egyptian singer who makes a memorable appearance in a pivotal scene that concludes Act One. Set in the Turkish Embassy in Paris during the French Revolution, this scene is a bawdy romp of Turkomania inspired by the comic operas of Rossini and Mozart.

The Pasha has arranged an entertainment for his guest featuring Samira. She sings an ornate cavatina which, while quite Arabic in style, utilizes ornaments and vocal techniques that call the art of bel canto to mind. Her text comes from the Berlitz book on Arabic phrases. A concludinq cadenza of wails ends the number.

The Ghosts of Versailles launched LA Opera's 2015 Figaro Trilogy -- three operas based on late 18th-century stage comedies by Beaumarchais. The trilogy continues with The Barber of Seville by Rossini (February 28 through March 22) and The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart (March 21 through April 12). For more information aboutThe Ghosts of Versailles, including ticket information, visit LAOpera.org/Ghosts.

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