A few years back, the Smashing Pumpkins delivered their ornate and multi-chambered ATUM: A Rock Opera in Three Acts. Now, bandleader Billy Corgan has revealed plans to formally hit opera crowds with a newly imagined version of the alt-rock favorites’ smash mid-Nineties epic, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.
The opera project was announced today (March 11th), and it will be a joint venture between Corgan and Chicago, Illinois’ Lyric Opera of Chicago. The presentation will premiere in November, and serve as a 30th anniversary celebration of the original album.
The stage adaptation of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness will apparently combine elements of opera, rock and performance art, and the show will feature newly commissioned musical arrangements and orchestrations by Corgan and conductor James Lowe.
“Opera and rock both tell stories of heightened emotions, and I am excited for both fans of my music and traditional opera fans to hear some truly inspired work; for the balance here is to honor both traditions in a magisterial way,” Corgan explained in a press release.
Corgan likewise added in a video trailer, which you can see up above, that reinterpreting the Smashing Pumpkins’ music with classically-trained musicians and fuller orchestration gives the project a different “level of class and distinction.”
“The versions that most people would be familiar with are the versions that the band did,” he said. “We’re very proud of those versions, but as the writer I know there’s other ways to do this music. So, the idea here is to create an interpretive effect that’s a single standalone event — like, you have to see this if you want to experience the album in a completely different way. It doesn’t betray the original spirit of the album. In fact, I think it’ll even enhance it.”
Corgan and the Lyric Opera of Chicago will stage their Mellon Collie opera November 21st-30th. Tickets go on sale April 11th, and you can find out more info here.