Sadly, this wonderful opera is currently only available as an out-of-print VHS tape. So, I thought I'd upload it for everyone to enjoy.
Music by John Corigliano
Libretto by William M. Hoffman
Marie Antoinette........Teresa Stratas
Samira..................Marilyn Horne
Bégearss................Graham Clark
Figaro..................Gino Quilico
Beaumarchais............Håkan Hagegård
Louis XVI...............James Courtney
Susanna.................Judith Christin
Count Almaviva..........Peter Kazaras
Rosina..................Renée Fleming
Florestine..............Tracy Dahl
Léon....................Neil Rosenshein
Wilhelm.................Wilbur Pauley
Cherubino...............Stella Zambalis
Turkish Ambassador......Ara Berberian
English Ambassador......Philip Cokorinos
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Chorus, and Ballet
Conducted by James Levine
Act 1
The ghosts of the court of Louis XVI arrive at the theatre of Versailles. Bored and listless, even the King is uninterested when Beaumarchais arrives and declares his love for the Queen. As Marie Antoinette is too haunted by her execution to reciprocate his love, Beaumarchais announces his intention to change her fate through the plot of his new opera 'A Figaro for Antonia.'
The cast of the opera-within-the-opera is introduced. It is twenty years after the events of 'The Marriage of Figaro'. Figaro appears, chased by his many creditors and now aging but still as wily and clever as ever. He lists his many achievements in a lengthy aria. Meanwhile, Count Almaviva is engaged in a secret plan to sell Marie Antoinette's jeweled necklace to the English Ambassador for the Queen's freedom. The Count, Beaumarchais explains, is estranged from his wife Rosina due to her affair, years earlier, with the now-dead Cherubino, an assignation which produced a son, Leon. Leon wants to marry Florestine, Almaviva's illegitimate daughter, but the Count has forbidden the union as retribution for his wife's infidelity and has promised Florestine instead to his friend Patrick Henri Bégearss.
Figaro enrages the Count by warning him that his trusted Bégearss is in fact a revolutionary spy. Figaro is fired, but overhears Bégearss and his dimwitted servant Wilhelm hatching a plot to arrest the Count that evening at the Turkish Embassy when he sells the Queen's necklace to the English Ambassador.
The Queen is still depressed, and Beaumarchais explains his intentions: Figaro will thwart the villains, the young lovers will be allowed to marry, and she herself will be freed and put on a ship bound for the new world, where he, Beaumarchais, will be waiting to entertain her. The King takes offense at this.
Beaumarchais enchants the Queen with a flashback, twenty years earlier, to Rosina's affair with Cherubino. In a beautiful garden, the lovers sing a rapturous duet, echoed by Beaumarchais and Marie Antoinette, who nearly kiss. They are interupted by the King, who, enraged, challenges Beaumarchais to a duel. After a brief bit of sword-play, the King runs Beaumarchais through, but the wound has no effect, because they are all already dead. The Ghosts find this hilarious, and have great fun stabbing each other.
Beaumarchais changes the scene to the Turkish Embassy, in a wild party thrown by the Turkish Ambassador, Sulyman Pasha. Bégearss readies his men to arrest the Count, but Figaro intercepts the plot by infiltrating the party, dressed as a dancing girl. During the outrageous performance of the Turkish singer Samira, Figaro steals the necklace from the Count before the sale can take place, and runs away.
Act 2
Figaro returns only to defy Beaumarchais's intention that he return the necklace to the queen, as he wants to sell it to help the Almavivas escape. To put the story back on course, Beaumarchais enters the opera and shocks Figaro into submission by allowing him to witness the unfair trial of Marie.
The Count, swayed by his wife's wishes, rescinds his offer to Bégearss of his daughter's hand. Even though Figaro gives him the necklace, Bégearrs is enraged and sends the Spaniards to the prison where Marie Antoinette lingers.
Beaumarchais and Figaro, the only two to escape, arrive at the prison to try to rescue the Almavivas. They are shortly followed by Bérgeass whom Figaro denounces to the revolutionaries, revealing that he has kept the necklace rather than using it to feed the poor. Bégearss is carried off, the Almavivas escape to America and Beaumarchais is left with the keys to the Queen's cell. But the power of his love has made the Queen accept her fate and she refuses to let Beaumarchais alter the course of history. Marie is executed, and the pair is united in Paradise.
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The Ghosts of Versailles (Corigliano) - Part 16 of 19by JeeRant906 views
Ugh, she's a goddess
SuperStar2999 1 year ago
That seems like a contradictory statement.
JeeRant 1 year ago