A San Antonio, TX native who’s still very much in touch with her Puerto Rican roots, Cristina María Castro is a sought-after performer equally at home in the worlds of both classical music and musical theatre. This season Ms. Castro will reprise the role of Sunny in Lucidity after premiering it with On Site Opera in the fall. She joins the cast of West Side Story with Indianapolis Opera as Maria, with Opera Montana she will sing Joanna in Sweeney Todd and another house debut with St. Petersburg Opera as Frasquita in Carmen, as well as a return to Northern Lights Music Festival as Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro. Last season Ms. Castro sang the role of Monica in La Médium (a new Spanish—language translation of the Menotti classic) with Fort Worth Opera, Paquette and Cunegonde cover with Northern Lights Music Festival, Guan Yin in Monkey: A Kung Fu Puppet Parable with White Snake Projects, and La Decimista Soprano in El Oratorio Panhispánico with Music at Co-Cath. All three performances are world-premieres. An avid champion of new music, Cristina María has had the honor of originating and creating three roles: Mrs. D in Howie D: Back in the Day, Cristina María in Local Opera Local Artists’ opera pastiche, We Might be Struck by Lightning, and Catherine in a New York Theatre Festival new musical, Bright is the Ring of Words. She has also workshopped many compositions in Frontiers with the Fort Worth Opera Festival. Other favorite roles performed include Toledo in The Falling and the Rising with Intermountain Opera Bozeman, Maria in West Side Story, Aldonza in The Man of La Mancha, and Despina in Cosi fan tutte. Castro enjoys serving as the Associate Creative Director of MACC (Music at Co-Cath) where she curates awe-inspiring and multicultural sacred music concert-plus experiences. Reviews:
"Cristina María Castro gives an emotionally charged performance as Sunny, without doubt the richest role in the opera. Her every entrance brought a bolt of energy to the performance. It helped that Castro was always center stage with her clarinet, giving voice to Sunny’s emotional roller coaster ride in her exciting soprano." - New York Classical Review Finally, in Juliana Hall's "A World Turned Upside Down," taken from the diary of Anne Frank, the immortal teenager's slender voice is shrouded by global catastrophe. It begins with the gleeful giggles of a 13-year-old, and Cristina Maria Castro's Soprano seems to grow up as the entries get more somber and the send of claustrophobia and doom overtakes the young author. - The Wall Street Journal Ms. Hall’s “A World Turned Upside Down” takes its title from the diary of Anne Frank, its patterned-fabric cover and scrapbook spirit replicated here, with the libretto’s English text interspersed throughout. These seven songs, for soprano (Cristina María Castro) and piano, are deferential to the surface emotions and ideas of Frank’s writing, to the point of literal-mindedness. Effervescent music accompanies notes on her birthday; dissonance, jittery trills and suspenseful pauses are an obvious analogue for an entry about footsteps in the night. - The New York Times His mother, Mrs. D. (Cristina María Castro), exudes encompassing love as she acts as intermediary between father and son.” - Broadway World As Monica, soprano Cristina María Castro invested her role with pathos and ambivalence. Ms. Castro's shining soprano was lovely in "Monica's Waltz" and in the soothing song she sings to calm her anxious mother--"The Black Swan".” - Voce di Meche |
Upcoming
Joanna - Sweeney Todd Opera Montana February 2025 Maria - West Side Story Indianapolis Opera May 2025 Frasquita - Carmen St. Petersburg Opera June 2025 Susanna - Le Nozze di Figaro Northern Lights Music Festival July 2025 |
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