Past productions
FALL 2024
SLAYLEM: The Witch Trials
Heartbeat Opera's 9th Drag Opera Extravaganza!
October 10 - 12, 2024
Judson Memorial Church
Drag the witch! Rip off your bonnets and sneak into the woods of Puritan New England, where bible thumpers and booty bumpers rendezvous in secret gothic gaiety. Cast out those prudish finger-pointers with the rapturous music of Copland, Donizetti, John Adams and more, as American history spreads herself open for you at Heartbeat Opera’s cockamamie Crucible.
SPRING 2024
THE EXTINCTIONIST
Composed by Daniel Schlosberg
Libretto by Amanda Quaid, based on her play
Originally Conceived with Louisa Proske
Directed by Shadi Ghaheri
Music Directed by Daniel Schlosberg
April 2 - 14, 2024
Baruch Performing Arts Center
A young couple is trying to have a baby. Ice caps are melting. Forests are burning. In the face of environmental collapse, one woman wonders if the best way to protect a future child is not to have one at all. It all goes according to plan until she discovers she has little choice in the matter. In this dark comedy, a woman’s body becomes a battleground of political anguish, conflicting desire, and existential dread.
A world premiere, sung in English.
EUGENE ONEGIN
Composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Libretto by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky & Konstantin Shilovsky
Co-Adapted by Obie Award-Winning Dustin Wills & Jacob Ashworth
Newly Arranged by Daniel Schlosberg
Directed by Obie Award-Winning Dustin Wills
Music Directed by Jacob Ashworth
April 2 - 14, 2024
Baruch Performing Arts Center
Inside the ornamented drawing rooms of a buttoned-up society, three young outsiders flame into mismatched passion and combust, hurtling toward irreparable choices. Tchaikovsky’s long-suppressed queerness floods into every character of this propulsive drama, as they smash against one of the most romantic operatic scores in history. Our radical adaptation maps the composer’s own complex biography onto his characters and asks — how can we ever break free of the life we are born into?
Sung in Russian.
Fall 2023
THE GOLDEN COCK
Heartbeat Opera's 8th annual Drag Extravaganza!
Nov 9-19, 2023
Roulette, Brooklyn
The disco balls have stopped spinning at the only gay club in St. Petersburg, and there’s time for one last bedtime story. It’s Queers versus Kremlin tonight in an eye-popping, ear-thrilling battle replete with ambrosial arias, rude roosters, and a dacha full of divas. Don your dress, down your vodka, and dream dirty at Heartbeat Opera’s frisky riff on Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Golden Cockerel.
spring 2023
TOSCA
Music by Giacomo Puccini
Libretto by Luigi Illica & Giuseppe Giacosa
Co-Adapted by Shadi G. & Jacob Ashworth
Directed by Shadi G.
Newly Arranged by Daniel Schlosberg
Music Directed by Jacob Ashworth
April 11-23, 2023
Baruch Performing Arts Center
Heartbeat's new production of Tosca translates Puccini's masterpiece of love and revolution from Rome's 1800 police state to the modern-day world of religious authoritarian regimes. This brand new co-adaptation by Iranian-American director Shadi G. and Heartbeat Artistic Director Jacob Ashworth focuses on a troupe of singer activists living in an oppressive dictatorship who have decided that tonight they will risk everything to perform the uncensored Tosca. They race to tell their whole story before the authoritarian forces lurking in the wings press in. This radical adaptation asks what it means to make art where freedom of expression does not exist — where even love is banned from the stage.
Puccini’s score is transformed in a breathtaking new arrangement by Daniel Schlosberg, featuring our biggest band yet: three cellos, bass, piano, flute, trumpet, and horn, conducted by Jacob Ashworth.
Sung in Italian, subtitles in Farsi and English.
LADY M
Composed by Giuseppe Verdi
Original libretto written by Francesco Maria Piave,
with additions by Andrea Maffei,
based on William Shakespeare's play
Adapted by Ethan Heard and Jacob Ashworth
Directed by Emma Jaster
Arranged and Music Directed by Daniel Schlosberg
April 11-23, 2023
Baruch Performing Arts Center
Isolated from both the male world of power and the female sphere of motherhood, Lady M spirals toward violence. Heartbeat weaves fragments of Shakespeare’s text and a new electronics-infused orchestration into a distinctly American adaptation of Verdi’s Macbeth that centers Lady M and recasts Verdi’s chorus of witches as a trio of virtuosic soloists. Oblivious to the witches who toil constantly at the borders of her privileged life, Lady M chases the ascent that will destroy her marriage, her sleep, and her sanity.
spring 2022
QUANDO
New Short Film & Live Disruption
April 7-9 at The McKittrick Hotel
Director & Editor Tee Vaden
Creative Producer & Story Concept by Derrell Acon
Music Directed and Arranged by Daniel Schlosberg
Original music by Giuseppe Verdi & C. W. Gluck
With additional live musical disruption by Mx. Oww & Jessie Cox
Music from Verdi’s operas La Traviata and Don Carlo and Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice are repurposed and refashioned into a 28-minute short film that follows a starry-eyed young couple as their night on the town unravels into a surrealist swirl of decadence, intrigue and, ultimately, vengeful justice.
WINTER 2022
FIDELIO
Music by Ludwig van Beethoven
Original libretto by Joseph Sonnleithner & Georg Friedrich Sonnleithner
Adapted & Directed by Ethan Heard
Arranged & Music Directed by Daniel Schlosberg
New English Dialogue Co-Written by Marcus Scott & Ethan Heard
FIDELIO Tour
February 10-27, 2022
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC
The Mondavi Center, UC Davis, CA
Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, AZ
The Broad Stage, Santa Monica, CA
A Black activist is wrongfully incarcerated. His wife, Leah, disguises herself to infiltrate the system and free him. But when injustice reigns, one woman's grit may not be enough to save her love. Featuring the voices of imprisoned people, this daring adaptation pits corruption against courage, hate against hope.
WATCH our 2022 Performance at The Metropolitan Museum of Art here.
FALL 2021
Messy Messiah
Heartbeat Opera's 7th annual Drag Extravaganza!
Dec 16-17, 2022
Roulette, Brooklyn
After six years of Halloween revelry, Heartbeat’s annual drag extravaganza moves to December and comes home for Christmas! Every winter season, joyful musical traditions abound; at the school pageant, the holiday party, and in every elevator. This year, with familiar favorites from Handel, Tchaikovsky, Strauss, and more, Heartbeat starts a few traditions of its own… each with a peppermint twist. Expect naughty nativities, bawdy ballet, frosty frolics, and a very messy Messiah.
Spring 2021
THE EXTINCTIONIST
a new one-act opera in development
Semi-staged presentations at PS21 Chatham May 29-30, 2021
Music by Daniel Schlosberg
Libretto by Amanda Quaid, based on her play
Directed, Conceived, and Developed by Louisa Proske
Music Directed by Jacob Ashworth
Fall 2020
BREATHING FREE
a visual album
premiered online December 2020
Director: Ethan Heard
Filmmaker: Anaiis Cisco
Creative Producer: Ras Dia
Co-Music Directors: Jacob Ashworth & Daniel Schlosberg
Movement Director: Emma Jaster
THE SECRET SAUCE
Seven Years in Seven Soirées
A Heartbeat Retrospective
Presented online in Virtual Soirées
September 14 – 20, 2020
Hosted by Heartbeat’s Artistic Leadership:
Co-Artistic Directors Ethan Heard & Louisa Proske
Co-Music Directors Jacob Ashworth & Daniel Schlosberg
Featuring special guests Derrell Acon, Julia Bullock, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Liz Diamond, Gundula Kreuzer, Wendy Lesser, and Jeanine Tesori
Spring 2020
LADY M
an online fantasia of Verdi’s Macbeth
Originally presented online in Virtual Soirées
May 11 – June 6, 2020
Recording available for rent:
Watch online now
Directed and adapted by Ethan Heard
Arranged by Daniel Schlosberg
Music Directed by Jacob Ashworth
Movement Directed by Emma Jaster
Fall 2019
DER FREISCHÜTZ
December 4-15, 2019
Baruch Performing Arts Center
Music by Carl Maria von Weber
Libretto by Friedrich Kind
Concept and Adaptation by Louisa Proske
Directed by Louisa Proske and Chloe Treat
Newly arranged and music directed by Daniel Schlosberg
New English dialogues by Michaël Attias and Louisa Proske
HOT MAMA
Singing Gays Saving Gaia
October 30-31, 2019
Roulette, Brooklyn
Heartbeat’s beloved tradition of mixing opera, drag, and pastiche returns to Roulette. This year, we celebrate Mother Earth in all her beauty and biodiversity. What will happen when Gaia herself confronts the terrifying Monster of Climate Collapse? Meltdown or salvation? Through virtuosic renditions of arias by Wagner, Vivaldi, Bernstein, Adams, and more, this extravaganza confronts the ultimate drama of our day. Expect operatic emissions, high “C’s”, and polar baritones!
Spring 2019
LA SUSANNA
a co-production with Opera Lafayette
April 21-22, 2019
The Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater
May 2-5, 2019
BAM Fisher (Fishman Space)
Premiere American Staging
Music by Alessandro Stradella
Libretto by Giovanni Battista Giardini
Directed by Ethan Heard
Music Directed by Ryan Brown & Jacob Ashworth
Fall 2018
FIDELIO
Remounted in a Semi-Staged Concert Version
Presented by Rutgers Presbyterian Church
May 3–13, 2018
Rutgers Presbyterian Church
Music by Ludwig van Beethoven
Original libretto by Joseph Sonnleithner & Georg Friedrich Sonnleithner
Adapted & Directed by Ethan Heard
Arranged & Music Directed by Daniel Schlosberg
New English Dialogue Co-Written by Marcus Scott & Ethan Heard
DRAGUS MAXIMUS
A Homersexual Opera Odyssey
October 26-27, 2018
Roulette, Brooklyn
All roads lead to Rome… and to Heartbeat Opera’s fifth annual Halloween Drag Extravaganza! Grab your golden fleece and catch a chariot down to Brooklyn’s Colosseum (aka Roulette) for an operatic, Greco-Roman orgy of gorgeous gladiators and glam goddesses. Join Homer and Sappho in a Herculean quest to Hades and back -- featuring the siren songs of Monteverdi, Handel, and Offenbach, plus a brand new number by Vavrek and Schlosberg. When in Rome…
Spring Festival 2018
See more: Explore the 2018 festival
DON GIOVANNI
Spring Festival 2018
May 2–12, 2018
Baruch Performing Arts Center
Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte
Adapted & Directed by Louisa Proske
Music Directed by Jacob Ashworth
New Arrangement by Daniel Schlosberg
Additional Direction & Musical Staging by Chloe Treat
FIDELIO
Spring Festival 2018
May 3–13, 2018
Baruch Performing Arts Center
Music by Ludwig van Beethoven
Original libretto by Joseph Sonnleithner & Georg Friedrich Sonnleithner
Adapted & Directed by Ethan Heard
Arranged & Music Directed by Daniel Schlosberg
New English Dialogue Co-Written by Marcus Scott & Ethan Heard
Fall 2017
ALL THE WORLD’S A DRAG!
Drag Extravaganza 2017
October 30–31, 2017
National Sawdust
Don thy codpieces, neck ruffs, and farthingales — Shakespeare cometh! Experience Heartbeat Opera's 4th annual Drag Extravaganza: ALL THE WORLD’S A DRAG! Shakespeare in love...with opera.
Spring Festival 2017
See more: Explore the 2017 festival
BUTTERFLY
Spring Festival 2017
May 21–28, 2017
Baruch Performing Arts Center
Music by Giacomo Puccini
Libretto by L. Illica and G. Giacosa
New arrangement by Daniel Schlosberg
Adapted by Ethan Heard and Jacob Ashworth
Translation by Jacob Ashworth & Peregrine Heard
CARMEN
Spring Festival 2017
May 21–28, 2017
Baruch Performing Arts Center
Music by Georges Bizet
Libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy
New arrangement by Daniel Schlosberg
Adapted & Directed by Louisa Proske
Translation by Michaël Attias
Fall 2016
QUEENS OF THE NIGHT: MOZART IN SPACE
Drag Extravaganza 2016
October 31, 2016
National Sawdust
Heartbeat Opera presents its 3rd annual Halloween Drag Extravaganza: a spectacular night of eye-popping fashion, divalicious coloraturas, and galactic Halloween revelries.
HEARTBEAT ON THE HIGH LINE
September 22, 2016
The High Line, NYC
Heartbeat Opera was invited to perform as part of the "Out of Line" series on the New York's iconic High Line.
Spring Festival 2016
LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR
Spring Festival 2016
March 10–20, 2016
Theatre at St. Clement's
Music by Gaetano Donizetti
Libretto by Salvadore Cammarano
Directed & Adapted by Louisa Proske
Arranged & Music Directed by Daniel Schlosberg
DIDO & AENEAS
Spring Festival 2016
March 11–20, 2016
Theatre at St. Clement's
Music by Henry Purcell
Libretto by Nahum Tate
Directed by Ethan Heard
Music Directed by Jacob Ashworth
Fall 2015
MISS HANDEL
Drag Extravaganza 2015
October 29–30, 2015
The Cotton Candy Machine
Part pageant, all party, this year’s delectable celebration (mis)handles George Frideric Handel. Don your powdery wigs, your dazzling masks, and prepare ye for beauty marks, coloraturas, fans, cocktails, raffle prizes, a costume contest, and so much more!
Spring Festival 2015
DAPHNIS & CHLOÉ
Spring Festival 2015
March 19–22, 2015
Sheen Center Blackbox
Music by Jacques Offenbach
Libretto by Clairville & Cordier
Directed by Louisa Proske
Music Directed by Louis Lohraseb
English translation by Michael Attias, Jacob Ashworth, and Louisa Proske
KAFKA-FRAGMENTS
Spring Festival 2015
March 18–22, 2015
Sheen Center Blackbox
Music by György Kurtág
Text by Franz Kafka
Directed by Ethan Heard
Fall 2014
THE FAIRY QUEEN
Drag Extravaganza 2014
October 30, 2014
The Cotton Candy Machine
Music by Henry Purcell
Directed by Ethan Heard & Louisa ProskeMusic Directed by Jacob Ashworth & Daniel Schlosberg