For opera, creepy imagery is nothing new. Mozart’s Don Giovanni famously met his end at the hands of a ghastly statue, for example. And now we’ve got –– gulp ––zombies!
This Saturday at The Live Oak Music Hall & Lounge, Fort Worth Opera will premiere Patrick Soluri’s Figaro and the Zombie Apocalypse as part of the company’s Opera Shots, an off-season series of casual performances in local watering holes. The New York composer is no stranger to Fort Worth –– last year he was one of eight composers whose work was showcased as part of Frontiers, the company’s relatively new initiative to discover unheralded 21st-century composers. Soluri has written operas performed by New York City Opera, Nevada Opera, and others and six ballets but is still considered a relatively unknown commodity.
The operetta follows the oh-so-cleverly named Figaro Montague (Ian McEuen), who hears about an impending zombie apocalypse while enjoying cocktails at his favorite pub. With the end near, he does what any guy would in his shoes — he looks around for an easy hook-up. Unfortunately, he picks the wrong woman, the feisty and even more cleverly named Carmen Capulet (Kerriann Otaño). Will Figaro and Carmen make a love connection? And in time?! Sorry, folks. No spoilers here.
Starring alongside the misguided lovebirds are young FWO artists Matt Moeller as the bartender and Clara Nieman as a fellow barfly. –– Edward Brown
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Figaro and the Zombie Apocalypse is 5:30 Sat at The Live Oak Music Hall & Lounge, 1311 Lipscomb St, FW. Free. Call 877-396-7372.
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