Written by Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan has announced UK and European shows for ‘A Night of Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness Featuring Billy Corgan’, an orchestral and operatic rendering of The Smashing Pumpkins’ iconic 1995 album.
Premiered with a critically acclaimed seven date run last year at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and featuring performances by Corgan alongside world class soloists and orchestras, the production is described in a press statement as paying “homage to the era-defining album of the same name, whilst also expanding the definition and intention of opera.”
“The success of translating Mellon Collie into operatic and classical form has been one of the most satisfying experiences of my life,” says Corgan. “Where on each of the seven 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.”
Conductor James Lowe says, “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 Smashing Pumpkins third album, released on October 23, 1995, the 28-track Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was one of the most ambitious and commercially successful rock albums of the ’90s, selling 10 million copies in the US alone. It featured hit singles Bullet With Butterfly Wings, 1979, Zero, Tonight, Tonight and Thirty-Three.
“This album has come pretty close to being the definitive Smashing Pumpkins album,” Corgan told this writer in 1995. “This is the best that we can be as the Smashing Pumpkins as people know it.”
“The original idea was to make the album like a soundtrack of a day and a night,” he explained, “but I kind of went away from that a bit. Obviously you don’t go through 28 different emotions in one day. It’s about life in a general sense.”
A Night of Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness Featuring Billy Corgan will be performed in September in the UK, Belgium, Paris and Spain.
A Night of Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness Featuring Billy Corgan
Sep 01: London Royal Festival Hall, UK
Sep 02: London Royal Festival Hall, UK
Sep 06: Antwerp Queen Elisabeth Hall, Belgium (2 shows)
Sep 08: Paris Salle Pleye, France
Sep 09: Paris Salle Pleye, France
Sep 11: Madrid Palacio Vistalegre, Spain,
