Culture Magazine

Yo, Next Week Mozart Has a New Zip Code — 90210!

By Galegirl
Figaro 90210

Morningside Opera’s upcoming production: June 11-16

Morningside Opera is presenting a fresh, new multi-cultural take on Mozart’s The Marriage Of Figaro, set in present-day Los Angeles.

The debate over immigration reform takes center stage in ¡Figaro! (90210) as the title character from Mozart’s beloved opera is recast as an undocumented worker on a Beverly Hills estate. These concert performances showcase the original music note-for-note but with an entirely new English (and Spanglish) libretto that makes “the world’s most perfect opera” as fresh, as funny, as relevant – and as revolutionary – as ever.

‘Illegal’ immigrants Figaro and Susana can’t wait to get married, but on their way to the altar they’ll have to navigate a world of lecherous bosses, Botoxed starlets, bumbling human traffickers, ambitious hip-hoppers and pothead gardeners in an unpredictable adventure that turns The Marriage of Figaro into a thought-provoking comedy about citizenship in 21st-Century America.

Mixing classically trained voices with performers from more popular styles respects the integrity of the original, while allowing newcomers to appreciate the show like never before, as does the abbreviated running time, which cuts the nearly four-hour opera down to a brisk two-and-a-half, including one 15-minute intermission.

After sold-out performances in November 2012 at Dixon Place, ¡Figaro! (90210) is returning for a limited run of concert performances from June 11-16, 2013. The accomplished cast of opera and theater performers will be directed by emerging Latina director Melissa Crespo, and accompanied live onstage by a five-string ensemble under the direction of pianist and music director Raphael Fusco, whom The New York Times has described as “accomplished and winning.”

If you’ve never seen the opera before, ¡Figaro! (90210) offers the perfect introduction to this timeless work; if you know the music by heart, you’ll be surprised how fresh and relevant the show feels with words and settings that directly address the way we live today.

¡Figaro! (90210) will be performed from June 11- 16, 2013 at The NSD Theater, 151 Bank Street, New York.

Click here for in interview with librettist Vid Guerrerio.

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Through tonight (Sunday, June 9) at 10pm, you can get discounted tickets by going to:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/380876 The discount code is: COMPANY90210You can also visit them on Facebook.

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