Smashing Pumpkins would love the opportunity to put on a special A Night of Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness show at Las Vegas Sphere.
Billy Corgan is swapping rock stages for opera halls as he hits the road with his ambitious A Night of Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness production; performing a full operatic and orchestral re-imagining of the band’s classic 1995 album.
Although he is yet to receive an offer to play the state-of-the-art venue in Sin City, he says he’d jump at the chance.
He told KROQ: “It’s a no-doubter for us. We just haven’t been asked yet.
“See, if the Sphere came to us and said, ‘We’d love you to do all of Mellon Collie with that production.’ Now, that makes sense to me to do something like that, to build the show around the album.
“Then you have a chance to recast the songs and the music in a different dynamic.”
The show features Corgan performing alongside top-tier soloists and full orchestras, turning some of the band’s biggest hits into sweeping classical pieces.
The production debuted in Chicago to rave reactions, with fans and critics praising the dramatic new versions of tracks like 1979 and Tonight, Tonight.
Corgan said the project has been one of the most rewarding of his career.
He said: “The success of translating Mellon Collie into operatic and classical form has been one of the most satisfying experiences of my life. Where on each of the 7 sold out nights in Chicago, we’d finish within the raucous wave of a standing ovation. So to now take it on the road, and to Europe, too says this magical dream doesn’t have to end.”
The show was created by Corgan and Grammy-nominated conductor James Lowe, who said: “It has been so gratifying to discover how the nuances and layers of Mellon Collie reveal themselves in fresh new ways in these symphonic, choral and operatic settings. To now have the opportunity to perform this work in Europe with world class musicians in such important venues is nothing short of thrilling.”
The cast includes vocalists Ed Parks, Sydney Mancasola, Zoie Reams, Dominick Valdes Chenes and Dean Murphy, with costumes designed by House of Gilles by Gilles Mendel and Chloé Mendel Corgan.
The run includes a string of September dates across the UK, Belgium, France and Spain, including two nights at London’s Royal Festival Hall.
