Interview: Anthony Roth Costanzo of THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO at Little Island

Anthony Roth Costanzo is the first opera singer in a generation to make consistent headlines - not just for his marvelous singing!   ARC was recently named General Manager and Artistic Director of Opera Philadelphia -- where only yesterday his new "Pay what you can," ticket program broke all boxoffice records!   The effort is designed to attract a generation of new operagoers.     

That is also the goal of his new and daring production of Marriage of Figaro opening at New York's hottest new attraction: Little Island.  BroadwayWorldClassical caught up with Anthony for a chat, as he prepares for his upcoming performances. 

So essentially what was the genesis behind this production down at Little Island?

You know, one thing that the artistic director of the Little Island and I share is, and we've known each other for a long time, since he was a teenager, is the desire to bring opera to different audiences.  And we're always thinking about creative ways to advance the art form, and Zach really wanted to do something that was well known, and I was thinking about what that could be.  I said, you know, when I was 17, my very first opera or experience with opera was singing Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro.   And I had to internalize all this Italian. I didn't know any!  I'd forget! I didn't speak Italian. And somehow in the process, I wound up learning literally every single part. And I would sing them around the house. And I think I have forever and ever.

That was the spark?

Well, we started together when I did “Only an Octave Apart”, I did a duet from the Marriage of Figaro, the Counties and the Susanna rather, and the Count.

I saw that. It was beautiful.

Thanks!  And so, I said, well, what if we did the whole opera like that? He said, well, what do you mean? I said, what if I just sang every word? And he said, what would happen in the ensembles? And I said, well, I've got no idea how we can make it all work!   And I well, fundamentally it's kind of about the voice, right? The voices are the really big way to express the identity. And so, when we start thinking about ideas of pitch and how that relates to gender, we start thinking about, you know, the direct expression of our being and what does it mean to sort of change identities and phrase back and forth. It's somewhere between the sort of slapstick of a Neil Simon play and a surrealistic film.   I evolved to dramaturgy and Jacob Berg, who I really think is fantastic, and he's written his dissertation on lip syncing in drag and how that's both the kind of appropriation of voice and also a sort of giving away of your voice.   And so, we came up with the idea to have the actors in the show who don't sing, but at various points start to assume the roles of characters I play scenes with. But like a ventriloquist, I play my part and their part.   And so that is in fact, we have an incredible troop of actors assembled by our amazing director Dustin Wills, who comes from the theater world and and is famous for his amazing “Wolf Play.”   And then we have the musical prodigy and genius of Schlossberg, who is putting together a new arrangement for a smaller band.

I think that he together we've come up with a version of the opera which covers some of the best, the most well-known arias, but also puts in all the ensembles and gets you through in a clean, cool 90 minutes.

It's an experiment in endurance. It's an experiment in sort of taking my voice to the next frontier of possibility and seeing whether I break it!

Well, we certainly hope that doesn't happen, but I think if I, if I remember correctly, Bartolo has like a G2, you know, and that's pretty low.  So you've got quite a range to navigate.  But you're going to be acting as well, right?

Oh, absolutely. And in in every imaginable costume of every character, by the incredible Emily Bodie, who's a fashion wunderkind.  I do multiple characters, so you'll see me in in every form possible.

What are your goals for the production?

You know, I don't think that art always has a goal. So, I'm not so goal oriented in that sense. But I think that my hope is that there will be hilarity and there will be moments amidst the hilarity, when the Mozart music is so undeniably beautiful and it comes through that someone who's never heard it before or doesn't think they like it will emerge really touched and moved by that musical moment. And I think that there are ways in which Mozart himself really wanted this opera to be hilarious and constructed it accordingly. But those moments of hilarity make the pathos that much more affecting, and I think we're sort of amplifying that in our way in this new sort of reconfiguration of the opera.

Little Island is stunning. It's really one of the cooler things New York has come up with in the past 40 years.  How are you going to deal with the time the performance is starting? Will the sun have already set? Are you going to have your back to the sunset?

Well, the sun sets just as the show is starting.  We're starting I think at 8:00 or 8:30, so you'll be seeing it go down and one of the great things about the river is that there's always a breeze, and hopefully no tugboat horns!

Ok lightning round questions:  What is your go-to karaoke song?

I think it is, “I feel love,” by Donna Summer.

Cool choice.  OK. And if you were a superhero, what would your superpower be?

My superpower would be that, and I don't know exactly how to say this:  that I could feel really rested and look really rested without ever sleeping. Not on the hours of the day.

Alright, if you had a magic wand that could either clean your house instantly or cook your food, which would you choose?

Oh that’s easy!  It would definitely clean my house!  I enjoy the cooking part, but I don't like the cleaning part.

Parting thoughts?

I think that we need to honor the tradition, and I love it. I've been singing opera for 33 years, so there's nothing I'm trying to do to disrupt it - well, that's not accurate, I am sort of disrupting that. I guess that I'm, I'm not trying to in the marketing sense. You're disrupting. Yes, destroy. But I'm not trying to destroy the tradition in any way. I'm trying to find new ways to give it light and to give people a way to access it. And I do believe that. Like you see this Marriage of Figaro, you'll be even more excited to go see the Met’s production coming next season because you'll have a different way to relate to it. And that has been my experience when I introduce people to opera. So I think these kinds of ways of entering the art form are really important. And this one will be hopefully of artistic merit as well as as well as, you know, just a great show in and of itself!

BWW would like to thank Anthony Roth Costanzo for taking time out from his rehearsals to chat with us.   Marriage of Figaro at Little Island runs from Aug 30th till Sept. 22nd – but ticket are almost completely sold out – so don’t wait!  It promises to be the classical event of the season!

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About THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO at Little Island

Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte
Conceived by Anthony Roth Costanzo
Music Arrangements by Dan Schlosberg
Directed by Dustin Wills

Performers: Chris Bannow, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Julia Danitz, Nicolee Kuester, Daniel Liu, George Meyer, Clare Monfredo, Ryan Shinji Murray, Tyler Neidermayer, Eleonore Oppenheim, Emma Ramos, Kristina Teuschler, Ariana Venturi, Young People’s Chorus of New York City led by Artistic Director/Founder Francisco J. Núñez

Music Director: Dan Schlosberg
Scenic Designers: Lisa Laratta & Dustin Wills
Costume Designer: Emily Bode
Lighting Designer: Barbara Samuels
Sound Designer: Sun Hee Kil
Video Designer: Nicholas Hussong
Production Stage Manager: Kasson Marroquin
Dramaturg: Jacob Bird

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