HEARTBEAT OPERA will return to the in-person stage for its eighth season this year. Heartbeat's 2021-22 season kicks off in September with a free outdoor screening of BREATHING FREE, their visual album that connects Beethoven's Fidelio with the work of Black composers and lyricists such as Harry T. Burleigh, Langston Hughes, and Anthony Davis.
In December, Broadway lost one of its brightest stars in Ann Reinking, who sadly passed away at the age of 71. Her legacy live on though, as dancers from the Broadway and National touring companies of Fosse and Chicago have reunited to tribute her memory.
HEARTBEAT OPERAa?"the fast-growing indie opera company whose visceral, re-imagined, re-orchestrated and stripped down stagings of classic operas have been called 'a radical endeavor' by Alex Ross in The New Yorkera?"continues to take its programming online in light of COVID-19. As artists face increasing financial hardship, Heartbeat Opera takes pride in the fact that 85% of their fall budget is going toward employing more than 50 collaborators.
Since it's highly unlikely that the Met will take on Carl Maria von Weber's DIE FREISCHUTZ (frequently translated as THE MARKSMAN) anytime soon--or even in the lifetime of any baby born this year--we should be grateful to Heartbeat Opera for bringing it to New York audiences through December 15, in a rootin' tootin' version that resets the piece from 16th-century Bohemia to contemporary Texas.
Patsy Cline's trailblazing spirit is remembered in a?oeMy Patsy Cline Songbook,a?? the first-ever, full-length jazz tribute album arriving August 23, 2019. Drawing on her country roots, vocalist Staci Griesbach's debut album explores looking at the Nashville Songbook as another treasure trove to consider reinterpreting for jazz, much like the traditional Great American Songbook.
WAITLESS, a new dramedy written by Cailin Harrison, directed by Reena Dutt is a recipient of the Encore! Producers Award for the Hollywood Fringe Festival 2014. Two additional performances have been added, July 18th at 8:30pm and July 19th at 5:00pm at the Lounge Theatres in Hollywood.