¡Figaro!
(90210)
TEAM
Our New York run is done, but click on the photos to learn more about the creative team that brought ¡Figaro! (90210) to life for the April 2017 revival at The Duke on 42nd Street.
{Click here for a note from the author}
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Music) A child prodigy who performed throughout Europe in his early years, this Austrian composer excelled in every medium of his time, including chamber music for strings, the piano concerto, and opera. Along with his contemporaries Haydn and Beethoven, he is one of the composers who brought the Viennese Classical style to its height. Mozart's mature music, distinguished by its melodic beauty, formal perfection, and richness of harmony and texture, is deeply colored by Italian opera though rooted in Austrian and south German traditions. He is widely regarded as the most universal composer in the history of Western music. (1756-1791) From the New Grove Biography {back to top}
Vid Guerrerio (Libretto) is a lyricist and bookwriter whose previous work, including I See London, I See France (the underwear musical) and Hit by a Bus and Other Love Songs, has been performed at Goodspeed Musicals, The Hartt School of Music, Theatre Building Chicago, NYMF and the NAMT Conference. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and NYU’s Musical Theatre Writing Program, and has an MBA in entertainment marketing from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. He worked for the Santa Fe Opera in their press and artistic administration offices for five seasons, and currently works as a film marketing strategist with a special focus on messaging to Hispanic audiences. {back to top}
Melissa Crespo (Stage Direction/Assoc. Producer) is a New York-based director of theater, opera, film and television with a focus on new work. Melissa’s direction has been seen around the world—from her most recent production of Destiny of Desire at Garden Theatre in Florida to Desiree Burch and Dan Kitrosser’s Tar Baby in Finland. She is proud to be the stage director of ¡Figaro! (90210) since our staged reading back in 2012. Melissa has served as the Allen Lee Hughes Directing Fellow at Arena Stage, Van Lier Directing Fellow at Second Stage Theatre, Drama League Fellow and is a current Lab member of The Women’s Project. Melissa received her MFA in Directing from The New School for Drama. www.melissacrespo.com {back to top}
Raphael Fusco (Music Direction) is a versatile keyboardist, conductor, and composer who has been hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “a lively player and fine improviser.” Raphael has lead numerous premieres from the harpsichord, accordion and piano including New Opera NYC’s Armida, Company XIV’s ballet La Fête, the USA premiere of Hans Eisler’s Die Mutter at Boston University, and Morningside Opera’s ¡Figaro! (90210). He has performed regularly with many of the world’s leading artists, including Branford Marsalis, Daniel Rowland, and Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, earning praise from The NY Times as “winning and accomplished,” while El Mundo noted Raphael as “one of the most outstanding composers of his generation.” www.raphaelfusco.com. {back to top}
Steven C. Kemp (Scenic Design) Opera: Silent Night, The Marriage of Figaro, Tosca, The Italian Girl, Il Trovatore, Faust, Idomeneo and Anna Karenina (Opera San Jose), Rigoletto, Falstaff (Opera Santa Barbara/OSJ), A Streetcar Named Desire (Merola/OSB/Kentucky Opera, Tulsa Opera), Dead Man Walking, Madame Butterfly (Indiana University), Don Giovanni, The Elixir of Love (San Francisco Conservatory of Music), A Streetcar Named Desire (Opera Grand Rapids/Fresno Opera/Townsend Opera). His designs in NYC include numerous productions Off-Broadway for Keen Company, Mint Theater Company, Second Stage, The Playwrights Realm, Cherry Lane Theatre, 59E59, and 47th Street Theatre. Regional work includes Asolo Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, Bucks County Playhouse, and The Royal George Theatre. www.stevenckemp.com {back to top}
Lux Haac (Costume Design) is a New York based Costume Designer who designs for theatre, film, opera, and dance. Some of her most recent credits include: Venus, directed by Melissa Crespo, Post Theatre Company/LIU; Amerinda’s Macbeth, directed by Madeline Sayet, HERE Arts Center; Violation, a film written and directed by Jevonne Bowman; The Road to Damascus, directed by Michael Parva, 59E59; and The Erlkings, directed by Saheem Ali, Theatre Row. Upcoming: A Lesson From Aloes, directed by Saheem Ali, Juilliard School of Drama. MFA from Tisch/NYU. For more information, please visit www.luxhaac.com. {back to top}
Gina Scherr (Lighting Design) Recent credits include Buyer and Cellar, Cake Off, Divine Sister, Buddy the Buddy Holly Story, and Steel Magnolias at Bucks County Playhouse, Mr Wolf at Cleveland Play House, Diner at Delaware Theatre Company, and Lives of Reason at Two River Theatre. New York designs include productions at The Public Theater, The Roundabout Underground, City Center, The Women’s Project, The Kitchen, PS122, La MaMa, and Clubbed Thumb. Regional credits include productions at Williamstown Theatre Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Old Globe, Milwaukee Rep, Asolo Rep, Weston Playhouse, and Yale Rep. Gina is a member of Wingspace Theatrical Design. MFA: Yale School of Drama. {back to top}
Dmitry Glivinskiy (Associate Music Direction) is a Ukrainian pianist and conductor. He has participated in many festivals and performed in venues such as Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Ukrainian Institute among others around Europe and in China. He has performed with several orchestras in NY, including Park Avenue Chamber Symphony, Centre Symphony and South Shore Symphony. He is a graduate from Mannes College of Music and of the Peabody Institute where, among his teachers, were Genya Paley, Pavlina Dokovska, Boris Slutsky and Scott Jackson Wiley. Dmitry has worked with numerous opera companies as a répétiteur, coach and conductor. Recently, he conducted Carmen with Secret Opera and Le Nozze di Figaro with OperaRox. {back to top}
Stephanie Card (Choreography/Asst. Stage Direction) is on a mission to inspire joy through storytelling and connection. She serves as a choreographer, director, actor, and teaching artist at various theatres and schools in New York and New England. Most recent choreography credits include Spring Awakening (Boston Conservatory), Red Riding Hood, Bye Bye Birdie Jr!, and the world premiere of The Map of Lost Things (Hangar Theatre). Member of Directors Lab West ’15, Associate Member of SDC. Thanks to Jen Waldman for bringing like-minded artists together. www.stephaniecard.com {back to top}
Jayme Castle (Production Stage Management) began her career in stage management in a small theater in Dallas, TX, where she fell in love with musical theater. After later being introduced to the world of opera at the Utah Festival Opera Jayme made it her goal to work in both musical theater and opera as much as possible. She has stage managed at the Contemporary Theatre of Dallas, Austin Lyric Opera, Nashville Opera, Performance Riverside, Utah Opera, as well as many other companies across the U.S. and is excited to bring her opera and musical theater experience together for this engagement of ¡Figaro! (90210). {back to top}
Alyssa Meyers (Stage Management) Stage management credits include work with The Martina Arroyo Foundation, Sarasota Opera, Opera Theater Saint Louis, and Opera Memphis, and Manhattan School of Music among others. Alyssa holds degrees in Voice and Opera Studies and Arts Management from SUNY Purchase College. Most recently she served at Production Stage Manager for Opera America's New Works Showcase at Trinity Wall Street. She hopes to use her platform as stage manager of color to continue exploring issues surrounding diversity in opera and production. {back to top}
Andi Radujkovic (Assistant Stage Management) is thrilled to be welcomed to the ¡Figaro! (90210) team as an assistant stage manager She recently graduated from the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music with her BFA in Stage Management. Her professional experiences include work with Cleveland Play House, The Know Theatre of Cincinnati, The Kennedy Center as well as the stage management intern at Hangar Theatre, Barrington Stage Company and Cincinnati Ballet Company for two consecutive seasons. CCM credits include: Romeo and Juliet, Ah, Wilderness!, 110 in the Shade, Hansel and Gretel and Metamorphoses. {back to top}
Berry Productions LLC/Peter Bogyo (Executive Producer) On Broadway, Peter has been the General Manager of: Love Letters, The Trip to the Bountiful, Stickfly, Time Stands Still, American Buffalo, Moon for the Misbegotten, The Blonde in the Thunderbird, Sly Fox, Fortunes's Fool and Voices in the Dark; Off Broadway he has General Managed: Adult Entertainment, Showtune, Mr. Goldwyn, Madame Melville and The Unexpected Man. For GMHC, Peter produced the benefit concerts of Anyone Can Whistle, Jublilee and Showstoppers! at Carnegie and David Geffen Halls. Peter is a member of The Broadway League and ATPAM, is a Tony Award Voter, and is a graduate of Yale College. His book, "Broadway General Manager: Demystifying The Most Important And Least Understood Role In Show Business" is due out from Allworth Press in September, and is available for pre-order on Amazon.com. www.peterbogyo.com. {back to top}
A note from the librettist of ¡Figaro! (90210)
As a teenager, I first fell in love with The Marriage of Figaro as a musical comedy. It had great tunes, it was funny, and it never really occurred to me that it was any different than Bye Bye Birdie or The Fantasticks: it just had a lot more interesting music. I also loved the idea that it wasn’t just funny, that back in the day it was actually considered political and “dangerous.” The idea that you could make people hum, laugh and think at the same time is pretty much what inspired me to start writing in the first place.
In creating this adaptation, my respect for the three brilliant artists behind the original—author Pierre Beaumarchais, librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte and, of course, composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart—has only increased. In response to a period of tremendous social change in late 18th-century Europe, they managed to create a work of art that both engaged and transcended the immediate political situation to get at the human experience of those changes.
While comparing the status of unauthorized immigrant workers with that of serfs in pre-Revolutionary Europe may be the most controversial element of ¡Figaro! (90210), my real purpose (like that of the original authors, I believe) has been to further discussion about the tremendous cultural shift currently underway in my own country.
One of the greatest things about living in a democracy is that, by design, national identity is not a fixed thing; it shifts with the population. As the U.S. becomes more and more multicultural, it is the design of our Founding Fathers that America’s social and political structures change to accommodate this.
Change, however, especially rapid change, is scary—now, as I’m sure it was back in 1786—and this is where my unbounded admiration for Beaumarchais, Da Ponte and Mozart comes in. They have taught me that, at its best, theater is not meant only to make an important social statement or advance a political agenda, but to craft a relatable human experience through which audiences can process their own emotional reactions to the world around them.
What this means is that I hope you’ll find this updated version of one of the greatest operas ever written both respectful of the original, and relevant to your own life in today’s America. But, to be honest, I’d be happiest if you left the theater humming, laughing and simply loving The Marriage of Figaro as the brilliant musical comedy I’ve always believed it to be. {back to top}