EUGENE ONEGIN

“WORTHY AND BRILLIANT”

- Sherri Rase, Gay City News

“A FRESH AND ELOQUENT NEW READING OF A BELOVED CLASSIC”

- Sylvia Korman, Parterre Box

Photos by Russ Rowland

TEAM

Director // Dustin Wills
Music Director // Jacob Ashworth
Scenic Designer // Dustin Wills
Costume Designer // Haydee Zelideth
Co-Costume Designer // Asa Benally
Lighting Designer // Reza Behjat
Associate Scenic Designer // Kate Noll
Stage Manager // Abril Valbuena
Props Supervisor // Madisen Frazier
Dramaturg // Peregrine Teng Heard
Fight/Intimacy Director // Rick Sordelet
Russian Coach// Philipp Rabovsky 
Festival Production Management // Intuitive Arts Management
Assistant Stage Manager // Sean Seu
Assistant Costume Designer // Jules Kulaya
Lighting Associate// Taylor Lilly
Associate Costume Design // Jules Kulaya 
Assistant Music Director // Jake Eisner
Repetiteur // Joanne Chang
Assistant Props Supervisor// Georgia Reichard 
Supertitles// Nicholas Betson

MEET THE Cast

Eugene Onegin // Edwin Joseph

Edwin Joseph is an actor and singer based in New York City. Recent theatre credits include the Tony-nominated revival of ‘Camelot’ at Lincoln Center Theater and Mira Nair’s ‘Monsoon Wedding’ at the Nasser Theater in Doha, Qatar (Special programming for the 2022 FIFA World Cup). Other theatre credits include Beauty and the Beast (Disney Theatrical; Mumbai, Delhi), The Zoo Story (Old World Festival), The Threepenny Opera (Aadyam Theatre Festival), The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Coriolanus (Shakespeare Society, Delhi).

Select operatic engagements include ¡Figaro! 90210 (Chautauqua Opera), Florencia en el Amazonas (Yale Opera), El retablo de Maese Pedro, Roméo et Juliette (Neemrana Foundation). Edwin is an Inlaks Scholar and a district winner in the Metropolitan Opera Auditions. He holds a BA from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi and an MM from Yale University. He co-founded Midnight Oil Collective, an accelerator for artistic ventures.

Tatyana // Emily Margevich

Emily Margevich has been performing since the age of two, with Chicagoland professional musical theatre credits filling her childhood years. Noted for her “exceptionally well-knit soprano of admirable evenness from top to bottom” (Parterre Box), Ms. Margevich won the Illinois District Metropolitan Opera Auditions in 2019 and Second Place in the 2021 Jensen Competition. Internationally, Emily portrayed Suor Angelica with Opera Festival of Morelia and won Third Place in the 2023 Meistersinger Competition. Emily trained at The Academy of Vocal Arts singing Violetta, Musetta, and Donna Elvira. This season, Emily debuts with Opera Baltimore and Music Academy of the West.

Lensky // Roy Hage

Tenor Roy Hage is humbled to have grown from a kid in Beirut, singing to drown the sound of bombs, to a man, becoming Lebanon’s first professional operatic tenor and GRAMMY®-nominee. With a rich career spanning over 40 operatic roles, Roy has performed with distinguished companies from Opera Philadelphia to Santa Fe Opera and has been nurtured by conductors including Yannick Nezet-Seguin and Sir Richard Bonygne. A captivating storyteller, he’s triumphed in roles from Hoffmann to Roméo and pushed artistic boundaries with immersive adaptations like La Traviata at New York's The Box. Beyond the stage, Roy has contributed to groundbreaking artistic projects and earned accolades in prestigious competitions. His journey, from Oberlin, Yale, Curtis, and AVA to Stanford's Graduate School of Business (MBA), exemplifies his commitment to personal and professional innovation. IG @roythetenor

Olga // Sishel Claverie

Mexican Mezzo-soprano, Sishel Claverie, is thrilled to rejoin her friends at Heartbeat. She enjoys a versatile career in opera, new works and multidisciplinary collaborations, with recent engagements like Bernstein’s MASS with the National Symphony Orchestra, the mariachi-opera El Milagro del Recuerdo with San Diego Opera, and her appearance as Lola in the short film Chinese Laundry. This Spring, Sishel makes her Santa Fe Opera debut as stage director of the Young Voices Scenes Showcase. Her theater/cabaret show SOLEFUL will premiere this fall at 480 Arts, in St. Paul Minnesota. 

Sishel has performed in numerous world premieres, like Ted Rosenthal’s jazz-opera Dear Erich with the New York City Opera and the video opera series Everything for Dawn by Experiments in Opera, among others. She currently resides in New York City with her husband Artie and two adorable kitties.

Filipyevna // Tynan Davis

Tynan Davis is a playful vocalist and human who’s happy to be back with her friends at Heartbeat Opera. This season has included Copland’s In The Beginning in Louisville, KY and Georgetown, DC with Artefact Ensemble and What Makes it Great w/ Rob Kapilow at Stanford University. She won a Grammy Award in 2019 for Best Opera Recording singing a drunken cellar rat named Rita with Boston Modern Orchestra Project’s Fantastic Mr. Fox. She’s toured with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the 25th anniversary North American tour of Phantom of the Opera. Her solo jazz album TYNAN is available on most streaming platforms, and is full of happy tunes you’ll know and love. Other favorite musical collaborations include Roomful of Teeth, Skylark Ensemble & The All’s Well Sisters. Tynan is also a passionate teacher and clinician, the mother of a ridiculously cute kid, and the wife of an insanely creative Broadway Properties Maker. IG @thetynandavis

Larina // Shannon Delijani

Iranian-American Mezzo-Soprano, Shannon Delijani, is a performer and artist based in Los Angeles. This season she has performed as Dido in Dido and Aeneas with UCLA Opera, debuted her solo show "Homeland" with Prima Voce Emerging Artists at the Pasadena Conservatory of Music, and performed Ravel's Sheherezade with the UCLA Philharmonia. Next up she will be singing the role of Eleni n the world premiere of Richard Danelpour's new opera, The Grand Hotel Tartarus. In 2020 she founded MAD SCENE, an interdisciplinary production company based in Los Angeles. // shannondelijani.com // IG @shannondelijani

PRINCE Gremin // Lloyd Reshard Jr.

Bass-Baritone Lloyd Reshard (he, him his) Gremin makes his debut with Heartbeat Opera. His 2023-24 season includes Angelotti in Opera Orlando's Tosca and Dr. Dulcamara in Davies’ Pinocchio with St. Pete Opera. Lloyd debuted with the Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra as guest soloist in the Sounds of the Spectrum concert, alongside renowned Tenor Lawrence Brownlee and as Bass Soloist in Handel’s Messiah. In January, Lloyd was a featured soloist for the Woodson Museum’s Classic Black concert. As lyricist, I Will Not Look Away premiered on the concert Go On and Love by the Portland Gay Men’s Chorus in March.

MEET THE DIRECTOR

Director // Dustin Wills

Dustin Wills is a theatre and opera director based in New York City. Upcoming productions include Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro with Anthony Roth Costanzo (Little Island NYC), Jeremy O Harris’ A Boy’s Company Presents: Tell Me If I’m Hurting You, and some unannounced secret stuff (!!) Recent theatre: Hansol Jung’s Wolf Play (2023 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Direction and Production), John J. Caswell Jr.’s Wet Brain (Playwrights Horizons/MCC), Kate Tarker’s Montag (Soho Rep), and Awful Event! (Baryshnikov Arts Center Residency). Recent opera: Handel’s Alcina, Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and Stravinsky’s соловей. Dustin has devised new work with Teatro L’Arciliuto in Rome, Italy, created large-scale puppetry pageants with Creative Action, trained with Augusto Boal in Theatre of the Oppressed legislative performance, and for a couple of years gave rogue tours of the Vatican. He is a 2023 Obie Award winner, SDCF Callaway Award finalist, Princess Grace Award recipient, a Drama League alum, and Boris Sagal directing fellow. He teaches in the Directing and Playwriting programs at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale with a focus on new play development and directing for opera.

MEET THE CONDUCTOR

Music Director // Jacob Ashworth

See Jacob’s bio on our Heartbeat team page.

The 2024 Festival was presented with:

And 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. Heartbeat Opera is also proud to be supported by the Howard Gilman Foundation.