LvB meets #BLM in Heartbeat Opera's Fidelio

By Kurt Gottschalk, 14 February 2022

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“the Prisoner’s Chorus... sung by inmate choirs from six penal institutions across the country”

Reviewed at Metropolitan Museum of Art, Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium, New York City on 10 February 2022

Beethoven, Fidelio (Adapted and arranged by Ethan Heard and Daniel Schlosberg)

Heartbeat Opera

Daniel Schlosberg, Conductor

Ethan Heard, Director

Curtis Bannister, Florestan

Kelly Griffin, Leonore

Corey McKern, Don Pizarro

Derrell Acon, Rocco

Victoria Lawal, Marzelline

Heartbeat Opera's Faust: an economical deal with the devil

Kurt Gottschalk, 15th May

Hot on the heels of their modern-day take on Salome, Heartbeat Opera returns with another economical but inventive staging of a classic.

****1

Shockingly good fun: Heartbeat Opera’s Salome

Kevin W Ng, 11th February

Heartbeat Opera’s chamber Salome marries musical ingenuity with dramatic clarity at The Space at Irondale.

*****

Queer longing: Heartbeat Opera's bold Onegin

Kevin W Ng, 4th April

A strong young cast heads Dustin Wills' reimagining of Eugene Onegin for New York's most innovative opera company, Heartbeat Opera.

***11

A powerful, imperfect Tosca relocated to Tehran

Kurt Gottschalk, 11th April

Last year, the upstart Heartbeat Opera impressively reimagined Fidelio for the Black Lives Matter era. Their new Tosca places the tragic opera about an opera singer in a land where women have been banned from singing.

***11

Richard Jones' clunky Samson et Dalila returns to Covent Garden

Dominic Lowe, 13th May

With Aigul Akhmetshina and Seokjong Baek in the title roles, there are reasons to be optimistic, but The Royal Opera's revival of Richard Jones' production is a mixed bag.

***11

Reality television: ENO’s Angel’s Bone in Manchester

Lawrence Dunn, 12th May

Kip Williams and ENO mount an extraordinary new production of Du Yun and Royce Vavrek’s multifaceted opera, with performances of great emotional directness broadcast live on camera.

*****

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Kurt Gottschalk

Kurt Gottschalk is a journalist and author based in New York City. His writings on contemporary and classical music, jazz and improvisation have been published in outlets throughout Europe and America and he has two volumes of short fiction to his name. He produced and hosted the Miniature Minotaurs radio programme on WFMU and currently hosts Afternoon New Music on WKCR.