Patricia Racette & More to Join Patti LuPone in LA Opera's THE GHOSTS OF VERSAILLES

Nearly a quarter-century after its world premiere at the Metropolitan Opera, the monumental "grand opera buffa" The Ghosts of Versailles, by composer John Corigliano and librettist William C. Hoffman, will receive its long awaited west coast premiere in a new production directed by 2014 Tony Award winner Darko Tresnjak. LA Opera Music Director James Conlon will conduct performances featuring the work's original orchestrations, heard for the first time since the opera's 1999 European premiere.

With 41 soloists, The Ghosts of Versailles features the largest cast ever assembled in LA Opera's history. Soprano Patricia Racette returns in the leading role of Marie Antoinette, with Broadway legend Patti LuPone as the entertainer Samira, who makes a notable appearance in a pivotal scene set at the Turkish Embassy in Paris. The cast also includes baritone Christopher Maltman as Beamarchais and baritone Lucas Meachem as Figaro.

The Ghosts of Versailles will have six performances from February 7 through March 1, 2015, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles CA 90012).

The Ghosts of Versailles is a love story set in the afterlife. The ghost of the French playwright Pierre Beaumarchais has fallen in love with the ghost of Marie Antoinette. He hopes to impress her with a new opera that shows his most famous literary creation-Figaro, the wily barber from Seville-20 years after the events depicted in his comedies The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro. The opera-within-the-opera that he conjures up for the queen incorporates many plot elements from The Guilty Mother, the last and least known of Beaumarchais' three Figaro plays.

The Ghosts of Versailles is part of LA Opera's 2015 Figaro Trilogy along with The Barber of Seville by Rossini and The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart. It is also a highlight of LA Opera's Figaro Unbound celebration, which explores the lasting legacy of Beaumarchais and his influential protagonist, Figaro.

The director of The Ghosts of Versailles, Darko Tresnjak, won the 2014 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder. The Ghosts of Versailles will reunite Mr. Tresnjak with four members of his creative team for that musical, including scenery designer Alexander Dodge, costume designer Linda Cho (who won a Tony Award for her work in A Gentleman's Guide), projection designer Aaron Rhyne and choreographer Peggy Hickey.

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