"BLENDING GENRES AND BENDING GENDERS.
VISUALLY AND MUSICALLY STUNNING."

– Observer

Heartbeat Opera's 8th annual Drag Extravaganza!

THE GOLDEN COCK

Created by Nico Krell & Jacob Ashworth
Directed by Nico Krell
Arrangements by Daniel Schlosberg
Music Directed by Jacob Ashworth & Daniel Schlosberg

Photos by Russ Rowland & Anne Hoskins

CAST

Ariana Wehr // soprano
Sara Couden // contralto
Daniel Moody // countertenor
Elliot Paige // tenor
John Taylor Ward // bass
Maxim Ibadov // emcee

BAND

Jacob Ashworth // violin
Angela Shankar // clarinet/saxophone
Deanne Cirielli // harp
Daniel Schlosberg // piano

MEET THE CAST

aRIANA WEHR

Soprano

Ariana Wehr is a Brazilian-American soprano and a graduate of the Cafritz Young Artist Program at the Washington National Opera. Last season she performed Micaela in Carmen with Portland Opera and returned to Washington National Opera for Jeanine Tesori and Tazewell Thompson’s Blue as Girlfriend #1/Nurse/Congregant. Ms. Wehr’s association with the opera includes its debut in 2019 for the Glimmerglass Festival where she received great critical acclaim. She is also on the original cast recording released on PENTATONE. Recently Ms. Wehr made her Seattle Opera debut as Euridice in Gluck’s Orfeo, and returned to Seattle Opera for their production of Blue. She reprised her roles in Blue for her Pittsburgh Opera debut, and was featured in Washington National Opera’s production of Carmen for the Kennedy Center Honors on the CBS Television Network. Ariana also recently made her Carnegie Hall debut in Requiem by Marc-André Bougie and Serenade to Music by Vaughan Williams.

SARA COUDEN

Contralto

Sara Couden was praised by Opera News for her “unusually rich and resonant” voice, Sara has sung with classical music institutions including the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Charleston Symphony, and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. Sara is a graduate of the Lindemann Young Artist Program at the Metropolitan Opera, and earned a master’s degree with Honors in Opera from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She also holds an A.D. in Early Music and Oratorio from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, and is an avid chamber musician.

daniel moody

Countertenor

Daniel Moody was praised for the ability to “pierce hearts” and “utterly silence a room” (The Boston Musical Intelligencer) countertenor Daniel Moody dazzles audiences and makes “a profoundly startling impression” (The New York Times) in opera and concerts in repertoire ranging from baroque to contemporary premieres.

Moody has sung the title roles in Handel’s Giulio Cesare, Rinaldo, and Orlando, and has sung the leading roles in contemporary works by George Benjamin, Peter Knell, Hannah Lash, Aribert Reimann, Elena Ruehr and Jorge Sosa. Career highlights include a recent debut with The Metropolitan Opera, appearances with Cincinnati Opera, Atlanta Opera, and Mark Morris Dance Group, concerts with Minnesota Orchestra, Les Violons du Roy, and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. He is featured on Apollo’s Fire’s recent recording of Handel’s Israel in Egypt and will soon release his debut album of music for the countertenor voice with the esteemed Parthenia Viol Consort. 

ELLIOTT PAIGE

Tenor

Elliott Paige's (he/him), recent credits include being a member in the Grammy nominated recording of X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X with Boston Modern Opera Projects, Opera Omaha, Detroit Opera. Other recent engagements include: Samiir in Samiir's Feast with White Snake Projects, Anton McCray’s Father in Anthony Davis’ The Central Park Five with Portland Opera, and performances of Champion with the Metropolitan Opera. Previous season highlights include performing as a Street Person soloist in Bernstein’s MASS at the Kennedy Center, and as Like Dixon with On Site Opera in their production of What Lies Beneath. In previous years, Elliott has sung with the Metropolitan Opera in their productions of Der fliegende Holländer and as a soloist in Porgy and Bess. 

He has been an Apprentice Artist with the Santa Fé Opera, where he sang the role of Parpignol in La Bohème, and performed as the ‘Quartet Tenor’ in the world premiere of Today It Rains with Opera Parallèle. Other credits include roles with the Santa Fé Opera; Palm Beach Opera, and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, where he sung the role of Bombur Yambarzal in the world premiere of Jack Perla’s Shalimar the Clown. Upcoming performances include: X and Verdi Requiem with the Metropolitan Opera, the Tenor Soloist in Heartbeat Opera's The Golden Cock, and a follow-up run of X with Seattle Opera in 2024. 

JOHN TAYLOR WARD

Bass

John Taylor Ward’s performances have been praised for their “Stylish abandon” (Alex Ross, The New Yorker) and their “finely calibrated precision and heart-rending expressivity” (Washington Post).  He performs regularly with the world’s finest baroque musicians and ensembles, including Christina Pluhar and L’Arpeggiata, Paul O’Dette, Steven Stubbs and the Boston Early Music Festival, William Christie and Les arts florissants, and Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists. In 2016, he was featured in the U.S. premiere of Claude Vivier’s Kopernikus, directed by Peter Sellars at the Ojai Festival, and he began a series of recitals at Joe’s Pub with Cantata Profana. In 2017 he made his debuts at the Salzburg, Berlin, and Luzerne Festspieles. Upcoming highlights include Berio’s Sinfonia with the New York Philharmonic and Nick Shadow in Igor Stravinski’s The Rake’s Progress, conducted by Barbara Hannigan in Gothenburg, Sweden. Taylor holds a BM from the Eastman School of Music and an MMA from Yale School of Music; he is the founding Associate Artistic Director of the Lakes Area Music Festival, an Associate Artist of Heartbeat Opera, and an avid Sacred Harp singer.

Maxim Ibadov

Emcee

Maxim Ibadov (they/them/fab) is a Brooklyn-based, Moscow-raised performing and teaching artist, community organizer, and events producer. A Baruch College Fine graduate with a BA in Arts Administration in Theatre, Maxim incorporates elements of arts education and queer identity into all of their work. Maxim is an arts specialist in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, a teaching associate at Park Avenue Armory, and a National Coordinator for RUSA LGBTQ+. During the pandemic, Maxim founded Tawk Productions LLC (named after their first podcast Let's Tawk!) to produce events and create spaces that uplift and empower the LGBTQIA+ community, focusing on issues such as supporting Ukraine in their war against Russia and confronting systemic issues of racism, transphobia and abuse within NYC's nightlife. Maxim's passion for drag was born out of a necessity to create queer joy for members of the post-Soviet LGBTQ+ community, who often suffer from systemic and cultural homophobia. As a drag artist, Maxim has performed and produced at House of Yes, 3 Dollar Bill, Coney Island USA, Hush, Kween, Macri Park, as well as prominent spots for the Post-Soviet diaspora such as Russian Samovar, Russian Vodka Room, and Mari Vanna. Maxim is beyond grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this production and would like to dedicate this performance to their family. #SlavaUkraini

meet the team

NICO KRELL

Director

Nico Krell is an Uruguayan-born director raised across three continents. He creates theatrical adventures: plays, operas, musicals, immersive escapades, and, once, a gastrotheatical adaptation of Medea. He is a lecturer at Princeton University and the recipient of the Louis Sudler Prize, Princeton's highest honor in the creative arts. He has directed projects at Lincoln Center, the wild project, Mercury Store, The University of Toronto, TheaterLab, Princeton Summer Theater, and Lucid Body House; he has supported work at Soho Rep., Heartbeat Opera, Opera America, and Berkshire Theatre Group.

JACOB ASHWORTH

Co-Music Director (Artistic Director, Heartbeat Opera)

See full bio on our staff page here.

Daniel Schlosberg

Co-Music Director & Arranger (Music Director, Heartbeat Opera)

See full bio on our staff page here.

Made possible with support from The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center.

And thanks to Hudson Valley Distillers and The Pickle Guys for sponsoring our show with vodka and pickles!