¡Figaro! (90210) returns to NY after successful L.A. run

Luke Scott (left) and David Castillo (right) (Photo Maria Baranova)

After sold-out performances on both coasts, ¡Figaro! (90210) is back at The Duke on 42nd Street in New York's Times Square until April 23rd.

The opera is an updated and rewritten version of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro about class and power. The piece is set in present-day Los Angeles (with a Trump Tower gag thrown in for New York audiences) and filled with pop references,  contemporary slang and includes current topics like immigration reform and income inequality. 

David Castillo, who we recently featured in his successful run as Anthony Hope in Townsend Opera's Sweeney Todd, will reprise the role of the stoner Atzuko. (Don't miss our interview with him). He's joined by barihunk Luke Scott as Paul Conti, hunkentenor Michael Kuhn as Basel, Jose Adan Perez as Figaro, actor Christin Byrdsong as Lil B-Man, Ethan Herschenfeld as Babayan, Lori Mirabal as Donna, Sahoko Sato Timpone as Ms. Soon-Yi Nam, Emma Grimsley as Barbara Conti, Raquel Suarez-Groen  as Roxanne Conti and Samarie Alicia as Susana.
 

Actor Christin Byrdsong (Photo Maria Baranova)

The libretto is in English and "Spanglish" and is about the undocumented workers Figaro and Susana who can't wait to get married. On their way to the altar they have to navigate a world of lecherous bosses, Botoxed starlets, bumbling human traffickers, ambitious hip-hoppers, and pothead gardeners in a wild adventure that recasts the classic opera as a madcap comedy about citizenship in today's America. 

Tickets are available at Figaro90210.com where you can use the discount code "GOGOFIGARO."  

Castillo next appears as the Doctor and Shepherd in Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande with the Cleveland Orchestra from May 2-6 under the baton of Franz Welser-Most. Fellow barihunks Elliot Madore and Hanno Müller-Brachmann will sing the roles of Pelleas and Golaud respectively. Tickets are available online.

Barihunk David Castillo fuses music and food in Seven Deadly Sins

Barihunk David Castillo and his Chefs (photo by Matthew & Becky Noel)

Barihunk David Castillo is taking a night off from singing to become the Creative Director for "The Seven Deadly Sins" at the St. Charles Room at Loyola University in New Orleans on Friday, January 6th.

The fusion-arts event will pair the seven deadly sins (Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy and Pride) with food prepared by some of New Orleans' top culinary artists.

Audience  membes will revel in the seven deadly sins through the chefs’ sinful artistic interpretations in a seven-course tasting menu. Music will include Bach BWV 54 “Just Resist Sin,” Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s “The Seven Deadly Sins,” and a performance by Counterclassic that fuses DJ, Instrumentalists, and Projection Mapping.

Efrain Solis, who has been featured on this site, will be joined by fellow opera singers Claire Shackleton, Benjamin Lee and Tyrone Chambers. Tickets are available online.

Castillo can next be heard as a singer on February 5th, when he performs Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion. Tickets are available online.