Heartbeat Opera

September 2021: Heartbeat presented its Breathing Free, a visual album focusing on Black empowerment in the arts, featuring excerpts from Beethovens Fidelio, Negro spirituals, and others. Breathing Free was presented as a free outdoor screening at the Hudson River Park (Pier 63) in New York City. The evening began with live performances of dance, spoken word, and voice.December 2021: Heartbeat performed Messy Messiah, an original drag extravaganza at Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn. The show was a joyful smash of Handels Messiah, Strauss Die Fledermaus, Tchaikovskys Nutcracker, and other holiday favorites, with outrageous costumes, interdisciplinary dance performances, and a guest appearance by famed countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo.January - February 2022: In partnership with the Met Museums METLive Arts, Heartbeat co-presented its original adaptation of Fidelio in New York City before embarking on a West Coast tour to The Broad Stage in LA, The Mondavi Center at UCDavis, and Scottsdale Performing Arts Center. Heartbeats Fidelio reimagines Beethoven's classic opera through the lens of Black Lives Matter, telling the story of a Black activist who is wrongfully incarcerated and his wife's journey to infiltrate the unjust system.April 2022: Heartbeat presented its second experiment in opera-film, Quando, at the McKittrick Hotel in New York City. Quando is a satirical and surreal look at performative activism, featuring a 25-minute film screened first on its own and a second time with live performers disrupting the score. Heartbeat recorded the film and soundtrack in the fall and winter of 2021-22 ahead of our live Quando performance in April.