Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: VHS Tape EAN: 9786302712933 Format: Classical, Color, NTSC ISBN: 6302712939 Label: Polygram Video Manufacturer: Polygram Video Number Of Items: 2 Publisher: Polygram Video Release Date: April 13, 1993 Running Time: 174 minutes Sales Rank: 11393 Studio: Polygram Video
Rating: - Superb new work!
I purchased the video on laser disc when it first came out and I have worn it out listening to it. I'd love to have a DVD of the work, and additionally a CD to listen to in the car. Alas neither appear to be available. You'll love the interplay between the modern and opera within the opera, as noted above. I saw the production at both the Met and the Lyric Opera in Chicago. It is a superb new work.
Rating: - Overblown Uninspired Trash
In 1991, when I heard the Met had commissioned a new opera, my interest was raised. Over the course of rehearsals, I managed to find news of this new project and grew more and more excited. Then the fateful day came for the premiere, and what a premiere it was!
Corgliano and Hoffman truly bring forward through the music and text the boredom of the ghosts at the opening. In fact, I still can't believe anyone has actually sat through the opening without being so bored as to be in physical pain! And it was all downhill from there.
One highlight, though, is the setting ... Read More
Rating: - Figaro enters the 2oth Century
This innovative production was created as a special celebration for the Met's anniversary and the attention shows. For traditional opera fans this one should come as a welcome treat because it is based on the final play in Beaumarchais' famous Figaro trilogy. It contains many familar characters out of Rossini and Mozart. For those who have followed the affairs of Figaro, Rosina and Count Almaviva through the earlier plays, it may come as something of a revelation to find out what's become of them. Susanna is now plump and a bit dowdy. The marriage of Countess Rosina and Count is back on the rocks. ... Read More
Rating: - Spectacular Show and Splendid Art!
I have almost worn the tape out listening and relistening. This is truly a great show but it also is important art.
Rating: - Brilliant! A well "executed" contemporary opera.
On December 19th, 1991, The Ghosts of Versailles premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in NYC. This opera was comissioned for the Met's Cententenary and was the first new work performed there in over a quarter of a century. See what you missed. Superbly conducted by James Levine, this opera features Theresa Stratas as the dead and depressed Marie Antoinette and has a hillarious cameo by Marilyn Horne as an arabian songstress whose voice is the purest in the land. The brilliant plot involves the characters of Beaumarchais's Figaro plays, led by the ghost of Beaumarchais himself. Will Beaumarchais' ... Read More
- 
- 