BIO

Sometimes Angel del Castillo is a composer, a photographer, a traveler: Trans-Siberian Railway / Silk Road / Route 66 / Two world-rounds / Three Interrails… More than 130 countries visited by himself with a Canon. He is now 41 years old.

He speaks some Spanish, English, Russian and Italian. He has a Bachelor in Composition, a Tourism Degree and a Master in Spanish Language for Foreigners. He has lived in Madrid, Moscow and Mexico City.

Grandson of a shepherd and carpenters. From a small Spanish village inside a natural park where he lives and where he built and opened in December of 2020 a new theater and laboratory for operatic experimentation. A project made with no public help and in the middle of the pandemic times: http://www.antiopera.com

Angel del Castillo is a multi-task artist, having taken diverse roles in the opera world so far such as: composer, librettist, stage director, set designer, singer, costume designer, videoart creator, stage manager, producer and shifter.

His most important works have been his first Antiopera called “Antifrida” (2018) which was also the first step in his “trilogy of antiwomen”, speaking about how the image of Frida Kahlo is so present in modern iconography (decorative pillows, T-shirts…) but not in real meaning. This opera was about the idea of the SISTER. And about this show the national critics said:

“Much more than almost all productions from official theaters, this one allows us to understand where a renovation of the genre can go.” (Opera Actual Magazine, January 2019)

Watch: http://www.antifrida.wordpress.com

After “Antifrida” came “Antimedea” (2020), about the idea of the MOTHER and rebuilding the myth of Medea’s classical tragedy but with a Spanish woman running away to Italy with his Paraguayan maid. About this show the critics said:

He draws from the purest sources of dramatic theater, and never bores (not as some contemporary opera productions, specially the official and subsidized ones) by addressing the audience to excitement, amusement and tremble. (Opera Actual Magazine, February 2021)

Watch: www.antiopera.com

The third step of this trilogy it will be about the FATHER, expected to be born in 2023.

Angel del Castillo as a composer has premiered his works in Spain, Italy, Germany and Russia. He studied piano in Guadalajara (Spain) and composition in the Superior School of Music of Valencia. He won two first prizes in the Valladolid Composition Competition (Spain) and in the Musici Mojanesi Competition (Italy) and the audience award in the Nano Opera Competition of Moscow (Russia) for Young Opera Stage Directors.

He is mostly a self-thaught theater man but he got important advices from Vivien Hewitt (stage direction at Opera di Genoa), Carlos Tuñón (stage direction at Pavón Theater of Madrid), Gerardo Pietrapertosa, Victor de Pilla and Alicia Gumá (art direction and set design from Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires), Julio Bao (lighting design from Teatro Madrid), and Pepa Hernández and Nieves Garcimartín (stage management from Teatro Real of Madrid).