Sad news: Death of a Met librettist
mainWilliam M. Hoffman, librettist of John Corigliano’s opera The Ghosts of Versailles, has died aged 78.
The opera, commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera in 1980, was staged in 1991 for seven nights, all of them sold out. The cast included Teresa Stratas, Renée Fleming and Marilyn Horne.
Subsequent runs were seen at Chicago, St Louis, Los Angeles and Wolf Trap. The Met booked a revival for 2010 but cancelled after the 2008 crash and has never rescheduled it since.
Hoffman won earlier renown for a Broadway play, As Is, recounting a gay man’s life during the Aids era.
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