LA Opera Music Director James Conlon’s world premiere recording of composer John Corigliano and librettist William M. Hoffman’s The Ghosts of Versailles, released on the PentaTone label, won two 2017 Grammy® Awards for Best Opera Recording and Best Engineered Album, Classical.
The opera marks James Conlon’s second recording with LA Opera that has been acknowledged by The Recording Academy; Mr. Conlon previously received two Grammy Awards in 2009 for Best Classical Album and Best Opera Recording for conducting LA Opera’s recording of Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny.
The Ghosts of Versailles features Patricia Racette in the leading role of Marie Antoinette and Broadway legend Patti LuPone as the Turkish entertainer Samira. The cast also includes Robert Brubaker, Joshua Guerrero, Christopher Maltman, Lucas Meachem, Renée Rapier, Brenton Ryan, Lucy Schaufer, Kristinn Sigmundsson, Stacey Tappan, Guanqun Yu, and the LA Opera Chorus & Orchestra. The production was recorded live at LA Opera during performances in February 2015 and the recording was engineered by Mark Donahue & Fred Vogler.