Two iconic artists -- operatic superstar Marilyn Horne and Broadway legend Patti LuPone -- will join together for a conversation about the unlikely role they share in common: Samira in John Corigliano's "grand opera buffa" The Ghosts of Versailles. The conversation, to be livestreamed at LAOpera.org beginning at 5:30pm tonight, February 27, will be hosted by James Conlon, LA Opera's Richard Seaver Music Director, who has worked extensively with both artists.
Ms. Horne created the role in the Metropolitan Opera's 1991 world premiere of The Ghosts of Versailles and Ms. LuPone is currently performing the role in the work's west coast premiere at LA Opera, which is conducted by Mr. Conlon. The Ghosts of Versailles will have its final performances at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Thursday, February 26, and Sunday, March 1.
About
Marilyn Horne - In 2002, Opera News declared that
Marilyn Horne "may be the most influential singer in American history." Ms. Horne's distinguished career has garnered her numerous honors, including a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award and a Lifetime Achievement Award from Gramophone magazine. She was named a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1995, received the National Medal of Arts in 1992, and has been inducted into the American Classical Music and Hollywood Bowl halls of fame. Ms. Horne has performed in more than 1,300 recitals, made well over 100 recordings, and received three Grammy Awards. Her autobiography,
Marilyn Horne: The Song Continues, written with Jane Scovell, was published in 2004. Since 1997 she has been the voice program director of the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara.
About
Patti LuPone -
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.
About The Ghosts of Versailles - 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 about The Ghosts of Versailles, including ticket information, visit
LAOpera.org/Ghosts.
About Figaro Unbound - An initiative inspired by LA Opera's programming of the Figaro Trilogy, Figaro Unbound: Culture, Power and Revolution at Play is a three-month, citywide exploration of the revolutionary spirit. With a variety of programming for all ages, Figaro Unbound investigates the ongoing relevance of Figaro and his legacy. For more information, visit
LAOpera.org/FigaroUnbound.
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