Corigliano’s ‘Ghosts’ May Have Many Lives : Opera: The Met is seeking to bring the new work back, the Chicago Lyric Opera plans a premiere for 1995, and there may be a Paris production.

NEW YORK —  The last Metropolitan Opera performance of John Corigliano’s new American work, “The Ghosts of Versailles,” was Friday night, but behind the scenes the frantic juggling of schedules continues as the Met seeks to bring it back sooner than anticipated. In addition, the work seems to have generated wide interest internationally.

The opera, the first premiere of an American work at the Met in more than 25 years, chalked up mostly favorable reviews, sold-out performances and standing ovations after each final curtain.

Corigliano, 52, is sanguine about the reception to his opera. “I think my blood pressure has risen 20 points,” the composer said. “The Met seemed to know it had a hit during rehearsals, (but) those standing ovations, even from subscription audiences, were a surprise.”

The final performance was taped by PBS for showing next season. Although no one would speak for attribution, it is well known in music circles that the Met is trying to move something out of the repertory for 1993-94 so that “Ghosts,” which employs the ghosts of murdered French aristocrats in a fantasy play, can be substituted.

Corigliano was also celebrated as a symphonic composer this week. Wednesday, his Symphony No. 1 dominated the classical field of the Grammys, in its recording by conductor Daniel Barenboim and the Chicago Symphony. The two-year-old work rang up nominations for album, orchestral performance, contemporary composition, engineering, and classical producer of the year.

In another development, Chicago Lyric Opera is moving ahead with plans for its own premiere of the “Ghosts” production in 1995. Casting is to be announced shortly, but reliable sources indicate that Catherine Malfitano has been offered the lead role of Marie Antoinette, created in New York by Teresa Stratas.

No one would speak for attribution about definite plans for other companies, but the betting is that the Opera de la Bastille in Paris is a good possibility, especially with the 200th anniversary of the execution of the French queen coming up in 1993. Myung-Whun Chung, the opera’s artistic director, is no stranger to Corigliano’s music, having led the premiere in Los Angeles of the composer’s “Pied Piper Fantasy,” commissioned by flutist James Galway. Pierre Berge, director of the Bastille Opera, was seen in the audience opening night, as was Gerard Mortier, new head of the Salzburg Festival.

Lotfi Mansouri of the San Francisco Opera also attended, but Peter Hemmings of the Los Angeles Music Center Opera did not.

Through a spokesman, Hemmings noted that he is familiar with the workshop tape of the score but that he does not think a Los Angeles staging of the opera is a probability. A spokeswoman at the San Francisco Opera said there was “no interest” in staging “Ghosts” there, primarily because there is a proposal in the works to commission three works over a 10-year period.

Still, Corigliano had plenty of reasons to celebrate this week, including the success of his Symphony No. 1, a subjective response to the devastation of AIDS, at the Grammys. A Chicago Symphony Orchestra recording of the work, which was performed by the Pacific Symphony under the baton of Catherine Comet last month in Costa Mesa, was nominated for Grammy awards in the best classical album and orchestra performance categories.

“One of the best things for music to come out of all of this is that Jimmy Levine, the Met’s music director, is talking about more commissions from other composers,” Corigliano said.

“I haven’t read all the press. I don’t think at this point that would be either useful or healthy. Of course, friends and my publisher have told me in general what has been said. Naturally I’m happy with all the publicity. My Symphony No. 1 will have had its New York premiere with the Philharmonic night before the last ‘Ghosts’ at the Met. After that I’m going off to Hawaii with Bill Hoffman,” the “Ghosts” librettist, “and collapse on a beach for two weeks.”

One thing Corigliano will now be able to do: He can delete the message on his answering machine informing callers that there are no tickets available for the Met performances.

John Henken also contributed to this story.