A brand new 100-minute adaptation, sung in French with new English dialogues.
Music by Charles Gounod
Original Libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite

Co-Adapted by Jacob Ashworth and Sara Holdren
Newly Arranged by Francisco Ladrón de Guevara
Directed and with New English dialogues by Sara Holdren
Music Directed by Jacob Ashworth

• BUY TICKETS → Purchase premium, orchestra and balcony tickets and select your preferred seats.

• PWYW TICKETS → Tickets start at $10 (max 4 per order) and be surprised with your seating assignment upon arrival!

• END OF SEASON GALA TICKETS → see more info below or here!

PACKAGES AND PROMOS

PAY-WHAT-YOU-WANT

EVERY PERFORMANCE HAS PWYW SEATS AVAILABLE! Tickets start at $10, are General Admission, and are limited to FOUR per order. Please use this link to access our PWYW tickets. (For reference, our average full price ticket is $75 per ticket.)

END OF SEASON GALA ON MAY 25TH! 🥂

Be part of something extraordinary! With the End of Season Gala tickets you’re not just attending—you’re supporting 200+ artists who brought Heartbeat’s 2024-25 season to life. See what it includes here.

STUDENTS

Students with a valid ID may purchase tickets to any performance for only $20! Simply enter “STUDENTOFFAUST” at ‘Enter Promo Code’ and checkout. Click here to access the discount directly!

📚 Special Offer for Classes: Interested in bringing a group? Reach out to us at christian@heartbeatopera.org for more information on group discounts and arrangements.

CAST

Faust // Orson Van Gay II
Marguerite // Rachel Kobernick
Mephistopheles // John Taylor Ward
Siebel // AddieRose Brown
Valentin // Alex DeSocio
Martha // Eliza Bonet
Wagner // Brandon Bell
Puppeteer // Rowan Magee
Puppeteer // Emma Wiseman

Band

Conductor & Violin // Jacob Ashworth
additional players tbd

MEET THE CAST

Orson Van Gay II (Faust) has captivated audiences in classical and contemporary opera and concert performances with his charisma and “fine heroic tenor” (San Francisco Classical Voice).

In 2024-25, Van Gay makes his debut in the title role of Faust with Heartbeat Opera, performs the role of Rennucio in Gianni Schicchi with Opera Idaho, and makes his Jazz at Lincoln Center debut with MasterVoices in Blind Injustice, reprising the role of Laurese Glover. Van Gay also joins the Virginia Symphony as the tenor soloist in Handel’s Messiah, and the San Bernardino Symphony as the tenor soloist in a program of Carmen and Daughter of the Regiment excerpts in concert.

Van Gay’s recent operatic roles have included Danilo in The Merry Widow, for which he earned Pocket Opera’s inaugural Hurst Artist of the Year Award in 2022; Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore with the Phoenicia International Festival of the Voice; the title role of Candide with Angels Vocal Art; Orlando in The Industry’s acclaimed site-specific production of Hopscotch; and both The Athlete in I Can’t Breathe and Rodolfo in La Bohème with Pacific Opera Project. In November of 2023, Van Gay released his first solo album, Colors of a Lyric. 

Rachel Kobernick (Marguerite) is a versatile soprano and actress based in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 2025, Rachel looks forward to three exciting role and company debuts singing La Statue Animée in Kentucky Opera’s production of Rameau’s Pygmalion, Marguerite in Heartbeat Opera’s production of Faust, as well as Tzeitel in a new production of Fiddler on the Roof with Cincinnati Opera. She is also a 2025 George and Nora London Foundation Competition Finalist. Last season, Rachel was an apprentice artist with Sarasota Opera, as well as made her role and company debut as Anne in A Little Night Music with Indianapolis Opera. Additionally, she has sung regionally with Opera on the James, Queen City Opera, and the NF Opera Collective, and in concert with Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Cincinnati Song Initiative, and more. In competition, she has been a finalist of the National Opera Association, Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra, and Corbett Foundation, and has won multiple awards from the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, the Kyrenia Opera Competition, and the Three Arts Scholarship Fund. Rachel graduated with a master’s degree in vocal performance from the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music and a bachelor’s of music from the Eastman School of Music.

John Taylor Ward (Mephistopheles) performs with “stylish abandon” (The New Yorker), “intense clarity and color” (New York Times), “finely calibrated precision and heartrending expressivity” (Washington Post). A native of Boone, North Carolina, Taylor grew up in a musical family – mostly bluegrass and Broadway. Before pursuing opera and early music studies at the Eastman and Yale Schools of Music, he spent his early years living a double life as both a sought-after musical theater actor and an Anglican boy treble. Taylor’s “lithe, louche, and admirably game” approach to the repertoire (Opera News) has yielded recent acclaimed debuts at Spoleto USA in the premier of Unholy Wars; Mexico’s Compañía Nacional de Teatro, starring in Iannis Xenakis’ Oresteia; and Vienna’s Musikverein as Jesus in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. Notable DVD releases include the role of Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress with Barbara Hannigan, Proteo in Orfeo Chaman with Christina Pluhar and L’Arpeggiata, and an upcoming documentary series on the life and works of Claudio Monteverdi with the Sir John Eliot Gardiner. Taylor is the founding artistic director of the Lakes Area Music Festival of Minnesota, a laureate of the Jardin des voix, and a member of the two-time Grammy winning ensemble, Roomful of Teeth.

Originally drawn to singing by the simplicity and sincerity of Scottish and American folk music, mezzo-soprano AddieRose Brown (Siebel) now imbues operatic and concert stages with the same heartfelt authenticity and creative spirit. Praised for “the loveliness of her velvety lower range” (New York Classical Review) and her riveting sauciness and “well-formed high range” (Boston Musical Intelligencer), AddieRose brings her full range of voice and character to the 24/25 season. She makes a company debut with Cambridge Chamber Ensemble as The Spy in Menotti’s Labyrinth, appears in Madison Sounds Concert Series as Olga in highlights from Eugene Onegin, and as mezzo soloist in Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Great Mass in C Minor, and joins the Hudson Valley Singers as mezzo soloist in Corigliano’s Fern Hill. She also returns to the New Philharmonic as Giannetta in L’elisir d’amore, and joins Opera on the James as the Usher in Alec Wilder’s quirky Cinderella story The Opening, and as Hansel in a touring production of Hansel and Gretel. AddieRose is delighted to close out the season as Siebel in Heartbeat Opera’s wild new rendition of Gounod’s Faust. www.addierosebrown.com

This season, Alex DeSocio (Valentin) makes his Florida Grand Opera debut in Die Zauberflöte (Papageno) and his Knoxville Symphony debut in Carmina Burana. He also appears with Opera Fort Collins in Don Pasquale (Malatesta) and Heartbeat Opera in Gounod’s Faust (Valentín). 

In the 2023/24 season, Mr. DeSocio joined Houston Grand Opera in the world premiere of Intelligence, covering the role of Travis; he made his PAC NYC debut in the New York premiere of An American Soldier (Sgt. Aaron Marcum); and performed with Fargo-Moorhead Opera in La bohème (Marcello). In the summer of 2024, Mr. DeSocio joined Central City Opera for Pirates of Penzance (Pirate King); and in the summer of 2023, he debuted with the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago as the baritone soloist in Mendelssohn’s Die erste Walpurgisnacht.

Further credits include the title role in Don Giovanni with Wichita Grand Opera; Le nozze di Figaro (Count Almaviva) with Miami Music Festival; Così fan tutte (Guglielmo) with LoftOpera; Pagliacci (Silvio) with Opera Memphis; La bohème (Marcello) and Roméo et Juliette (Mercutio) with Opera Birmingham; L’elisir d’amore (Belcore) with Sarasota Opera; and La Cenerentola (Dandini) with Opera Fort Collins.

Rowan Magee (Puppeteer) is a puppeteer, designer, and educator living in Brooklyn, NY. He is interested in the expression of natural materials, and the physics of composite bodies. He has performed on international tours with Phantom Limb Company, Robin Frohardt, Nick Lehane, and Dan Hurlin, in New York for Chris Green, Lake Simons, Sachiyo Takahashi, Spencer Lott, at the Metropolitan Opera, BAM Harvey, and on Broadway in Angels in America and Life of Pi. In 2019, Rowan operated the titular reference puppet for the film Clifford the Big Red Dog. He has designed and fabricated puppets for New York Theater Workshop, MCC Theater, The Dalton School, St Mark's School, and Lincoln Center Education. Rowan is a board member for the Puppetry Guild of Greater New York, and the co-founder of the Object Movement Festival, a winter residency and spring showcase of experimental puppet artists in NYC.

Emma Wiseman (Puppeteer) specializes in puppetry and object theater. As a performer, puppet designer, and/or puppetry director, she has worked with artists and organizations including New York Theater Workshop, Signature Theatre, Dan Hurlin, Jeanette Yew, Robin Frohardt, Sachiyo Takahashi, Nick Lehane, Derek Fourdjour, Emily Zemba, Josh Rice, Alex Da Corte, Swoon, CO/LAB Theater Group, Geva Theatre, and the Kennedy Center, and toured around the world. Emma’s original work investigates human relationships with spaces and objects, often finding wonder in the mundane. emmawiseman.me

MEET THE TEAM

Francisco Ladrón de Guevara

New Arrangements

Francisco Ladrón de Guevara was born in Xalapa, Mexico. At age ten he was the youngest ever to win 1st prize at Kocian International violin competition. At age 12 he emigrated to the US to study at the Juilliard School with Dorothy DeLay. While pursuing his Bachelor’s at Juilliard, Francisco won the concerto competition and performed William Schumann’s violin concerto at Avery Fisher Hall under the baton of Leonard Slatkin. 

While in the US he studied composition at Juilliard with Manuel Sosa, Eric Ewazen and Samuel Adler. Since returning to Mexico in 2011, Francisco has dedicated himself primarily to composition, while performing as a violinist in the Orquestra de Cámara de Belles Artes, for whom he has written numerous new works and orchestral arrangements.

Francisco’s works have been performed throughout Mexico, from chamber music to symphonies to operas. In 2023, he was invited as part of a composer-librettist team to the Banff Center for their “Opera 2023” program. Writing for Heartbeat Opera is something of a homecoming for Francisco, who has written many works specifically for Jacob Ashworth over the years, including a virtuosic set of solo variations that Jacob performed in a Master’s recital at Yale School of Music, and music for the film, The Convalescent. Francisco currently resides in Mexico City.

Presented with:

And supported by the following organizations:

Heartbeat Opera’s Spring Festival is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Heartbeat Opera is also proud to be supported by the Howard Gilman Foundation.