Music by John Corigliano; Libretto by William M. Hoffman
Jay Lesenger, stage director; Steven Osgood, conductor; Steven Capone, set designer; Darcy Hofer, costume designer; Lee Fiskness, lighting designer

A Grand Opera Buffa suggested by the Beaumarchais play The Guilty Mother

The setting is the present and also the autumn of 1793. The theater at the palace of Versailles has been haunted for more than 200 years by the ghosts of the court of Louis XVI. The playwright Beaumarchais has fallen in love with the melancholy Marie-Antoinette, who still mourns her execution. He announces his intention to save the queen from her tragic fate by rewriting history in his newest play, “A Figaro for Antonia.” Since the enormously successful Metropolitan Opera premiere of Ghosts of Versailles in 1991, Corigliano and Hoffman’s buffa “opera within an opera” has been recognized as a masterpiece. Andrew Porter, critic for the Times of London, called it “a triumph with the public, a success with the New York press, and a sell-out at the box office… it is heartening to find a new opera greeted with a standing ovation.” Don’t miss this milestone for the Northwestern University Opera Theater. Performed in English with English supertitles. By arrangement with G. Schirmer, Inc., publisher and copyright owner.

Part of the John Corigliano Festival

Tickets are $18 for the general public, $15 for senior citizens and Northwestern faculty and staff, and $8 for students.