Heartbeat Opera to Release MANON! Cast Album

Heartbeat Opera will release its first-ever full length album MANON! on Friday, August 14. The first two singles, "Where is that girl…Let me sparkle" and "When I close my eyes (The Dream)" are out now on all streaming services.

The recording, made at the legendary Power Station Studios with Lexicon Classics, features the original cast from the company's dazzling run at Irondale last season, which showcased an English-language Broadway-infused revamp of Massenet's 1884 French opera, and was hailed as a “vital, magnificently performed opera that speaks to us in 2026” (Theatermania) and “a triumph” (CadenzaNYC). 

Heartbeat takes a radically new approach to Massenet's opera, envisioning it as a musical sung entirely in English. The adaptation features a saucy new libretto by Jacob Ashworth and Obie Award winner Rory Pelsue, who directed the winter production, and the score is newly arranged and conducted from the piano by Dan Schlosberg, who channels Richard Rodgers and Rococo in a luscious re-orchestration for eight musicians.

THE ADAPTATION

Rory Pelsue and Jacob Ashworth's inspiration was the history of opéra comique, a style that in its time looked a lot like musical theater today. Their English translation finds the meeting ground between the two, combining the grandness and opulence of opera with the irresistible punch of Golden Age musicals. Heartbeat is at the vanguard of bringing opera in English back, and this translation builds on Heartbeat's recent productions, notably their English-language Salome "that had New York's cognoscenti all atwitter" (Air Mail).

THE ARRANGEMENT

MANON! features a new arrangement by Heartbeat's celebrated music director Dan Schlosberg, the wizard behind so many of the company's dazzling productions. In the words of Tony Marinelli in Theatrescene, "Schlosberg's arrangements consistently land with the quiet shock of inevitability—the sense that, once heard, they could hardly be otherwise." Massenet's irresistible score takes on new flair with this re-orchestration, moving seamlessly between 18th century allusions, 19th century romanticism, and early 20th century musicals. At the heart of the band are oboe and bassoon—their wonderfully French colors making a rare appearance in a Heartbeat band—alongside horn, harp, violin, cello, bass, and Dan at the keyboard playing piano, harpsichord, and organ.

THE CAST

MANON! features a cross-pollinated ensemble of luminaries of the opera and musical theater worlds. In the role of Manon is Emma Grimsley, who has made a home equally in opera and musical theater, and recently played Christine in the Broadway national tour of Phantom of the Opera. Matt Dengler, who plays the Chevalier Des Grieux, understudied Henrik in the Broadway revival of A Little Night Music. Glenn Seven Allen is a consummate singing actor performing on Broadway, 0ff-Broadway and opera stages around the world. Jamari Darling was in Ain't Too Proud on Broadway, and Broadway veteran Justin Lee Miller, another true crossover artist, has been in Porgy and Bess at opera houses all over the country (he was also the inaugural Program Director of Musical Theatre at Interlochen Arts Academy). Kathryn McCreary, a classically trained soprano with a career in musical theater off-Broadway and on tour, recently appeared in Lincoln Center Theater's Amahl and the Night Visitors with Joyce DiDonato and Phillip Boykin. Natalie Walker worked with Rory Pelsue on The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse and has made a home in the world of offbeat musical theater.

When director Rory Pelsue and I set out to adapt this work and create a whole new book and lyrics, the influence of Golden Age musical theater came fast. I've always had a soft spot for the populist, theater-before-music, exceedingly — and sometimes embarrassingly — French genre of opéra comique. But I knew that the Heartbeat audience would crave not only literal translation, but a kind of whole cloth cultural translation. Then Rory popped the question: What if we hired Musical Theater singers? Wouldn't that be closer to how they originally performed this piece? Intrigued, we set up a workshop to test the concept. The result was so affecting and illuminating that we knew right then the essence of our adaptation would be to discover the Golden Age musical lurking within Massenet's masterpiece.