{"id":110014,"date":"2017-04-18T16:12:17","date_gmt":"2017-04-18T20:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=110014"},"modified":"2017-04-22T15:50:52","modified_gmt":"2017-04-22T19:50:52","slug":"sing-together-as-long-as-were-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/18\/sing-together-as-long-as-were-alive\/","title":{"rendered":"Sing, Together, as Long as We\u2019re Alive"},"content":{"rendered":"

A conversation about\u00a0<\/em>\u00a1Figaro! 90210 and immigrants\u2019 rights at the opera.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mozart\u2019s 1786 opera Le nozze di Figaro<\/em> has been set in a Trump Tower penthouse and at a Jewish wedding in contemporary Germany. Now, for a week in New York City, Vid Guerrerio\u2019s adaptation, \u00a1Figaro! 90210<\/em>, sets Mozart\u2019s music to an English\/Spanish libretto\u2014and puts Conti in a red baseball cap. Of course, the plot still features two spirited, ingenious working people trying to free themselves from the abuses of the powerful, but now Figaro and Susana are undocumented Mexican household workers singing their opening duet in Spanish, on the grounds of the Beverly Hills mansion of their pussy-grabbing employer, Mr. Conti. Susana explains that the boss has given them a pool-house apartment to facilitate his assaults on her: \u201cI see this coming when he tell me he help me get my visa \u2026 \u2018Good girls, they get green cards. Girls who don\u2019t obey their boss get deported.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Le nozze di Figaro<\/em> lends itself well to this kind of reworking; rebellion is in its DNA. Its eighteenth-century premiere came only a few years before the French and Haitian Revolutions. The opera derived from a play by Beaumarchais (who was also an arms dealer<\/a> for the American Revolution) of which Louis XVI said, \u201cFor this play not to be a danger, the Bastille would have to be torn down first\u201d; Napoleon, for his part, called it \u201cthe Revolution in action.\u201d The opera\u2019s librettist, Lorenzo Da Ponte, lightened the play\u2019s political radicalism to bypass Austrian censors, earning Joseph II\u2019s approval and a special palace performance commission. Yet the plot remains subtly subversive, addressing both the vulnerability and moral superiority of women and workers, and the violence of the ruling classes and their henchmen. After the marvelously entertaining opening night, the two of us compared notes to figure out what kind of audience \u00a1Figaro! 90210 <\/em>was for. Not everybody, we observed, was happy with the adaptation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mechi:<\/strong> During the intermission, I heard a conversation behind me between a white man and a black man. After asking the black man for his opinion, which was overwhelmingly positive, the white man went on to say that though there were a lot of similar elements to the original, he found this remake \u201ctoo much\u201d\u2014as if bringing this piece into a \u201cforeign,\u201d twenty-first century context had sullied it in a way. That felt really wack.<\/p>\n

Alison:<\/strong> I think 90210\u2019s <\/em>exploration of immigrants and citizens taps right into Figaro<\/em>\u2019s revolutionary eighteenth-century thinking. The opera comes from a French play, adapted for opera by a Jewish Italian living in Vienna who eventually moved to New York and became a Columbia professor. He wrote it just a few years before the French Republic would hash out ideas about citizenship, abolishing internal passports<\/a> and passport controls, declaring that \u201cthe asylum that [France] opens to foreigners will never be closed to the inhabitants of countries whose princes have forced us to attack them, and they will find in its womb a secure refuge.\u201d The Republic decided that the definition of a foreigner was a \u201cbad citizen\u201d\u2014by which they meant the nobles, guilty of \u201cdo-nothing idleness\u201d and hostile to the Revolution.<\/p>\n

The original plot depends on the myth of droit du seigneur, a \u201cright\u201d that supposedly permitted noblemen to sexually exploit any young women who were their feudal subjects. Sexual violence committed by the ruling classes against the lower classes was then, and remains, an important subject. But this particular myth belongs to rhetoric that Umberto Eco called \u201cshaggy medievalism,\u201d which obscures very real, contemporary violence as something that\u2019s \u201cfeudal,\u201d distant, and irrelevant to the now. There\u2019s also a kind of shaggy medievalism in watching this pre-Revolutionary opera but trying to wrap it in feudal\u2014or Enlightenment\u2014nostalgia, in being unable to relate it to twenty-first century concerns. I can\u2019t help thinking that the Contis of the world prefer traditional stagings that obscure their discomfort with the opera\u2019s politics. But there are all kinds of comfort and discomfort different audiences can feel, and they aren\u2019t all bad.<\/p>\n

<\/a>

Samarie Alicea in \u00a1Figaro! 90210<\/i>. Photo: Maria Baranova<\/p><\/div>\n

Mechi:<\/strong> As a Latinx person, I felt a sort of comfort, a familiarity, with 90210<\/em> from its first words, which were in Spanish. There were parts of it that felt incredibly welcoming, like when Susanna calls Babayan \u201cPapito\u201d after discovering he\u2019s Figaro\u2019s father. I call my father Papito! Ultimately it felt accessible, not stuffy. I haven\u2019t been to an opera since college, so I was worried I\u2019d be out of place or that people would be able to tell I didn\u2019t belong, because I may not have the right language to discuss it. So often I associate opera and theater with others, not with us. For a variety of reasons, we don\u2019t often think of Latinos as consumers of opera.<\/p>\n

Alison:<\/strong> The barriers to opera attendance, which are formidable, have so much to do with familiarity, classical-music education, and gatekeeping, even before they\u2019re compounded by whether or not programming or casting reflect or welcome a diverse audience. So many people who are at the opera take it for granted that opera belongs to them. But people who aren\u2019t already insiders don\u2019t find out that at the Metropolitan Opera, a rush orchestra seat costs only twenty-five dollars. And there\u2019s no dress code, but only insiders know that wearing jeans and sneakers just means you\u2019ll come off as a musicologist. People don\u2019t get to hear about Martina Arroyo, a great black and Puerto Rican soprano, who was born in 1936 and grew up in Harlem. Or about the small companies like Harlem Opera Theater, or the tons of fantastic black, Latino, and Asian singers performing now. So what kind of opera insider gets to decide which productions\u2014and audiences\u2014truly belong, and what\u2019s \u201ctoo much\u201d?<\/p>\n

Mechi:<\/strong> Just being there challenged me to think about who these art forms are for and why\u2014why can\u2019t<\/em> I<\/em> be the kind of person that goes to the opera? When I got home, I told my mom about it, and her eyes shone. I know she would have loved this, especially because it felt like a musical telenovela, and she loves telenovelas. A lot of the plot twists were the same. Gasp<\/em>, these are your real<\/em> parents. Gasp<\/em>, you aren\u2019t at all who you thought you were. And there were so many slapstick moments that were perfectly adapted from the original that reminded me of the comedies of my youth, like S\u00e1bado gigante<\/em>. So it all felt familiar and wonderful\u2014both because of its similarity to Figaro<\/em> and the cultural context.<\/p>\n

Alison:<\/strong> I agree, the fidelity to the original libretto enhanced the sparkle of the original and renewed the commitment to the score and words, like in the bell-ringing duet reworked for cell phones. The count\u2019s duet with Susana, rewritten in English and peppered with racism, brings out the menace and creepiness of the harassment, where her \u201cno\u201d keeps getting turned into \u201cyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mechi:<\/strong> That really highlights the vulnerable position of undocumented women in America. The rise of Trump has meant a decrease in undocumented women reporting domestic violence and rape for fear of deportation. The fear of rape or assault by the \u201cmaster of the house\u201d is real. That fear\u2014and the fear of being deported for failure to comply with your boss\u2014escalated the tension and drama of the original, grounding it in a very real, contemporary issue. We\u2019re seeing women dropping their domestic abuse cases<\/a>, because they\u2019re afraid to get rounded up by immigration and deported<\/a> while trying to get their cases heard. Conti refers to Susana and Figaro as \u201centitled\u201d and \u201cillegals\u201d\u2014\u201cI\u2019m a true American, not you, so I\u2019m entitled to \/ True happiness! \u2019Cause this land isn\u2019t your land\u2014it\u2019s mine!\u201d\u2014but the irony is that their only \u201ccrime\u201d is trying to better their lives, while Conti is trying to force himself on Susana because he feels entitled to her body.<\/p>\n

<\/a>

Raquel Suarez Groen (left) and Luke Scott (right) in \u00a1Figaro! 90210<\/i>. Photo: Maria Baranova<\/p><\/div>\n

Alison:<\/strong> We also talked about moments that made us uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

Mechi:<\/strong> The moments when Conti shouts the words wetback<\/em> and beaner<\/em> felt like a slap in the face. Hearing a slur is never necessarily a welcome discomfort, but I found it jarring. It veered into a weird territory that seemed to undo much of what had been established in the previous acts. All of a sudden, the pressure that had been building was released. If you\u2019re not the kind of person to call someone illegal<\/em> or wetback<\/em>, the opera seemed to say, then you\u2019re not Mr. Conti anymore, and you can distance yourself from this very real American perspective. It\u2019s hard to say what the intention was here. Was it meant to shock the audience? Was it meant to give the white audience an out? I struggled with the idea that Conti could insult Susana and Figaro\u2014and that all he\u2019d needed to do to fix that is apologize. Also, Conti isn\u2019t framed as someone who self-identifies as a bigot: they sing of him, \u201clike so many, the liberal politics stop at his front door.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alison:<\/strong> All your thoughts build up to the finale of the opera, where we get an aesthetic, musical, and political resolution\u2014of sorts. In the original, the countess demands that the count forgive Susana and Figaro for plotting against him. The count, realizing that his wife knows he\u2019s betrayed her, sings, \u201cCountess, forgive me.\u201d Then, in one of the most musically sublime moments in opera, she does. \u201cI am more mild,\u201d she sings\u2014or, let\u2019s translate it as \u201ckind,\u201d or \u201cnice.\u201d The ensuing harmonies are celestial, and they pose forgiveness, reconciliation, and understanding as the solutions to conflict and violence. But what does forgiveness mean when it\u2019s the vulnerable and powerless people who do the forgiving, while those who wield actual power have the choice to forgo it? It\u2019s sad, ironic, or horribly disingenuous.<\/p>\n

Mechi:<\/strong> That scene in particular, watching Mrs. Conti forgive her husband so quickly, felt like the ultimate betrayal. Throughout the opera, she\u2019s presented as his foil\u2014she\u2019s more tolerant, and she treats her staff like family rather than servants. But in forgiving Conti\u2019s sexually predatory and racist behavior, so much of that felt hollow. It trivializes the gravity of Conti\u2019s transgressions against both Figaro and Susana. This opera asks us to contemplate forgiveness and what it means, especially in the larger political context of America\u2019s current immigration crisis. It left me wondering if some things are too egregious for forgiveness\u2014and whether or not we can still move forward without it.<\/p>\n

Alison:<\/strong> There are some stagings of the finale of Figaro <\/em>that have undermined the power of forgiveness, and I think they could and should be considered here. In some productions, the countess pauses a long <\/em>time before granting forgiveness. In others, she packs her bag during the merry finale and, in the final moments before curtain, leaves her husband. There\u2019s a good intervention in 90210, <\/em>where Conti sings to her, \u201cI\u2019m so sorry\u201d\u2014she points him toward Figaro and Susana, to whom he adds, \u201cLo siento.\u201d Dramatically and ethically, it\u2019s absolutely necessary, but it can\u2019t escape the inadequacy of apology in this situation. In representations of power, violence, and justice, in opera<\/a> or otherwise, we don\u2019t need to portray harmony and forgiveness as ultimately opposed to, and resolving, violence. That\u2019s a reductive narrative, and it omits resistance and revolution.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m interested in what you thought of the ending. In the run-up to the 2016 election, Guerrerio rewrote one of Susana\u2019s arias and moved it to the encore. According to the director, Melissa Crespo, that encore was the main reason to remount the show now\u2014<\/p>\n

My friends, let\u2019s all join hands
\nWe\u2019re in this together
\nWhether we like it or not
\nThe only choice we\u2019ve got
\nIs try to turn back time
\nTo some simpler fiction
\nOr embrace life\u2019s complexity
\nAnd contradiction.
\nIt\u2019s messy, and so very stressful,
\nYes, it\u2019s very stressful and scary, too.
\nTrue, but messy humanity? That\u2019s nothin\u2019 new.
\nTough times may test us
\nBut they also can bring out the best us
\nGod has blessed us
\nNot with the answers,
\nNo, answers always get it wrong
\nWe\u2019re blessed with questions,
\nQuestions and song.
\nAnswers divide us,
\nWe\u2019re meant to search and seek and strive
\nAnd sing, together, as long as we\u2019re alive.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mechi:<\/strong> Harmonious resolution is great, in theory, but as viewers, we fall in love with these characters\u2014we empathize with them, we see our families and friends and loved ones in them. To force them into this tidy ending feels like a mistreatment. Some viewers may enjoy seeing this forgiveness, hearing Susana\u2019s call for us all to work through it together, especially after she\u2019s so graciously forgiven Conti. But when she walks out of that house, she\u2019s still at risk of deportation and sexual violence. After the curtain comes down, we sacrifice these characters we love in our quest for \u201canswers,\u201d neatness, and resolution.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a1Figaro! 90210<\/a> plays at the <\/em>Duke on 42nd Street<\/em><\/a> through April 23, 2017.<\/em><\/p>\n

Mechi Anna\u00eds Est\u00e9vez Cruz is a Dominican American writer and activist. Mechi focuses on gentrification, immigration, and Dominican culture and history. Mechi\u2019s work has appeared in <\/em>The Establishment, Remezcla, and <\/em>Vibe.<\/em><\/p>\n

Alison Kinney is a Korean American immigrant and correspondent for the <\/em>Daily; this is the sixth installment of her opera column,<\/em> Songs to the Moon<\/em><\/a>. Her writing has appeared online at <\/em>Harper\u2019s,<\/em> Lapham\u2019s Quarterly Roundtable,<\/em> Longreads, Hyperallergic, and <\/em>VAN Magazine; her first book is <\/em>Hood (Bloomsbury).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alison Kinney and Mechi Anna\u00eds Est\u00e9vez Cruz discuss the opera, which features Figaro and Susana as undocumented Mexican workers with a Trump-like boss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1156,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22700],"tags":[28419,5563,28421,28423,27125,26956,19381,28415,2275,28416,28420,3697,15000,2204,2426,14504,13392,21061,23888,28424,24672,28422,28418,28417],"class_list":["post-110014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-correspondents","tag-figaro-90210","tag-adaptations","tag-beaumarchais","tag-beverly-hills","tag-deportation","tag-domestic-abuse","tag-donald-trump","tag-figaro","tag-immigration","tag-le-nozze-di-figaro","tag-louis-xvi","tag-mozart","tag-napoleon-bonaparte","tag-opera","tag-politics","tag-power","tag-rebellion","tag-revolution","tag-sexual-assault","tag-sexual-harassment","tag-songs-to-the-moon","tag-undocumented-immigrants","tag-vid-guerrerio","tag-wolfgang-amadeus-mozart"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u00a1Figaro! 90210, a New Adaptation, Takes Immigrants\u2019 Rights to the Opera<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Alison Kinney and Mechi Anna\u00eds Est\u00e9vez Cruz discuss the opera, which features Figaro and Susana as undocumented Mexican workers with a Trump-like boss.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/18\/sing-together-as-long-as-were-alive\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sing, Together, as Long as We\u2019re Alive by Alison Kinney and Mechi Anna\u00eds Est\u00e9vez Cruz\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"April 18, 2017 \u2013 Alison Kinney and Mechi Anna\u00eds Est\u00e9vez Cruz discuss the opera, which features Figaro and Susana as undocumented Mexican workers with a Trump-like boss.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/18\/sing-together-as-long-as-were-alive\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-04-18T20:12:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-04-22T19:50:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/030117_figaro_final_logostar-03.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2304\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1287\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alison Kinney and Mechi Anna\u00eds Est\u00e9vez Cruz\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alison Kinney and Mechi Anna\u00eds Est\u00e9vez Cruz\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"12 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/18\/sing-together-as-long-as-were-alive\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/18\/sing-together-as-long-as-were-alive\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Alison Kinney and Mechi Anna\u00eds Est\u00e9vez Cruz\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d5f66a54fb7b4aab61111090bd56a35d\"},\"headline\":\"Sing, Together, as Long as We\u2019re Alive\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-04-18T20:12:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-04-22T19:50:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/18\/sing-together-as-long-as-were-alive\/\"},\"wordCount\":2346,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/18\/sing-together-as-long-as-were-alive\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/030117_figaro_final_logostar-03.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"\u00a1Figaro! 90210\",\"adaptations\",\"Beaumarchais\",\"Beverly Hills\",\"deportation\",\"domestic abuse\",\"Donald Trump\",\"Figaro\",\"immigration\",\"Le nozze di Figaro\",\"Louis XVI\",\"Mozart\",\"Napoleon Bonaparte\",\"opera\",\"politics\",\"power\",\"rebellion\",\"revolution\",\"sexual assault\",\"sexual harassment\",\"Songs to the Moon\",\"undocumented immigrants\",\"Vid Guerrerio\",\"Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Our Correspondents\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/18\/sing-together-as-long-as-were-alive\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/18\/sing-together-as-long-as-were-alive\/\",\"name\":\"\u00a1Figaro! 90210, a New Adaptation, Takes Immigrants\u2019 Rights to the Opera\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/18\/sing-together-as-long-as-were-alive\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/18\/sing-together-as-long-as-were-alive\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/030117_figaro_final_logostar-03.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-04-18T20:12:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-04-22T19:50:52+00:00\",\"description\":\"Alison Kinney and Mechi Anna\u00eds Est\u00e9vez Cruz discuss the opera, which features Figaro and Susana as undocumented Mexican workers with a Trump-like boss.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/18\/sing-together-as-long-as-were-alive\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/18\/sing-together-as-long-as-were-alive\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/18\/sing-together-as-long-as-were-alive\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/030117_figaro_final_logostar-03.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/030117_figaro_final_logostar-03.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/18\/sing-together-as-long-as-were-alive\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sing, Together, as Long as We\u2019re Alive\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d5f66a54fb7b4aab61111090bd56a35d\",\"name\":\"Alison Kinney and Mechi Anna\u00eds Est\u00e9vez Cruz\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3f5d3ff529e927494adee695edaef1ce4c5fb7e868959bcc709dcc7e1cf1b7d2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3f5d3ff529e927494adee695edaef1ce4c5fb7e868959bcc709dcc7e1cf1b7d2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Alison Kinney and Mechi Anna\u00eds Est\u00e9vez Cruz\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/alison-mechi\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\u00a1Figaro! 90210, a New Adaptation, Takes Immigrants\u2019 Rights to the Opera","description":"Alison Kinney and Mechi Anna\u00eds Est\u00e9vez Cruz discuss the opera, which features Figaro and Susana as undocumented Mexican workers with a Trump-like boss.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/18\/sing-together-as-long-as-were-alive\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sing, Together, as Long as We\u2019re Alive by Alison Kinney and Mechi Anna\u00eds Est\u00e9vez Cruz","og_description":"April 18, 2017 \u2013 Alison Kinney and Mechi Anna\u00eds Est\u00e9vez Cruz discuss the opera, which features Figaro and Susana as undocumented Mexican workers with a Trump-like boss.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/18\/sing-together-as-long-as-were-alive\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2017-04-18T20:12:17+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-04-22T19:50:52+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2304,"height":1287,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/030117_figaro_final_logostar-03.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Alison Kinney and Mechi Anna\u00eds Est\u00e9vez Cruz","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Alison Kinney and Mechi Anna\u00eds Est\u00e9vez Cruz","Est. reading time":"12 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/18\/sing-together-as-long-as-were-alive\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/18\/sing-together-as-long-as-were-alive\/"},"author":{"name":"Alison Kinney and Mechi Anna\u00eds Est\u00e9vez Cruz","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d5f66a54fb7b4aab61111090bd56a35d"},"headline":"Sing, Together, as Long as We\u2019re Alive","datePublished":"2017-04-18T20:12:17+00:00","dateModified":"2017-04-22T19:50:52+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/18\/sing-together-as-long-as-were-alive\/"},"wordCount":2346,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/18\/sing-together-as-long-as-were-alive\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/030117_figaro_final_logostar-03.jpg","keywords":["\u00a1Figaro! 90210","adaptations","Beaumarchais","Beverly Hills","deportation","domestic abuse","Donald Trump","Figaro","immigration","Le nozze di Figaro","Louis XVI","Mozart","Napoleon Bonaparte","opera","politics","power","rebellion","revolution","sexual assault","sexual harassment","Songs to the Moon","undocumented immigrants","Vid Guerrerio","Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart"],"articleSection":["Our Correspondents"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/18\/sing-together-as-long-as-were-alive\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/18\/sing-together-as-long-as-were-alive\/","name":"\u00a1Figaro! 90210, a New Adaptation, Takes Immigrants\u2019 Rights to the Opera","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/18\/sing-together-as-long-as-were-alive\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/18\/sing-together-as-long-as-were-alive\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/030117_figaro_final_logostar-03.jpg","datePublished":"2017-04-18T20:12:17+00:00","dateModified":"2017-04-22T19:50:52+00:00","description":"Alison Kinney and Mechi Anna\u00eds Est\u00e9vez Cruz discuss the opera, which features Figaro and Susana as undocumented Mexican workers with a Trump-like boss.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/18\/sing-together-as-long-as-were-alive\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/18\/sing-together-as-long-as-were-alive\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/18\/sing-together-as-long-as-were-alive\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/030117_figaro_final_logostar-03.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/030117_figaro_final_logostar-03.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/18\/sing-together-as-long-as-were-alive\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sing, Together, as Long as We\u2019re Alive"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d5f66a54fb7b4aab61111090bd56a35d","name":"Alison Kinney and Mechi Anna\u00eds Est\u00e9vez Cruz","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3f5d3ff529e927494adee695edaef1ce4c5fb7e868959bcc709dcc7e1cf1b7d2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3f5d3ff529e927494adee695edaef1ce4c5fb7e868959bcc709dcc7e1cf1b7d2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Alison Kinney and Mechi Anna\u00eds Est\u00e9vez Cruz"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/alison-mechi\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1156"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110014"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110208,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110014\/revisions\/110208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}