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“The indie company continues to build new narratives with old arias,
creating some of the most poignant storytelling mixed with over-the-top parties.”
— Observer
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HEARTBEAT OPERA
presents its eighth drag extravaganza
THE GOLDEN COCKAn original riff on Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Golden Cockerelfeaturing Queers versus Kremlin and an array of pop, Broadway, and classical songs with new arrangements by Daniel Schlosberg THREE SHOWS AT ROULETTE509 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn Thurs, Nov 9 at 7:30 — The GalaFri, Nov 10 @ 7 — The Early Show
Fri, Nov 10 @ 9:30 — The Late ShowSpecial opera guest John Holiday joins the cast for The Gala
Heartbeat Opera—the New York company whose unconventional orchestrations and daring stagings have been called "radical" by The New Yorker and "pioneering" by The New York Times—is thrilled to bring back its beloved drag opera extravaganza this fall at Roulette. With a cast of returning Heartbeat favorites, The Golden Cock marks Heartbeat's most ambitious—and operatic—drag extravaganza yet.
In this year's pageant, The Golden Cock—Heartbeat Opera’s frisky riff on Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Golden Cockerel—the disco balls have stopped spinning at the only gay club in St. Petersburg, and there’s time for one last bedtime story.
The show will include songs and arias from Rimsky-Korsakov's The Golden Cockerel, May Night, and Sadko; Rachmaninoff's Vocalise; Wynton Marsalis' Abyssinian Mass; Rossini's La Cenerentola and L'Italiana in Algeri; Ahrens and Flaherty's Anastasia the Musical; Leoncavallo's Pagliacci; Meyebeer's Dinorah; and Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun.
Heartbeat's drag extravaganzas always reimagine classic opera, but The Golden Cock is the closest they have come to making an adaptation of a full opera into a drag show. Rimsky-Korsakov’s original is a fantastical tale about a hapless but war-mongering tsar who sets off towards the West with his army at the slightest crow of “danger!” from his golden cockerel. He becomes enchanted by a foreign queen who ends up seducing him, returning with him, and taking over his empire. Heartbeat Opera's version turns the fantastical into the fabulous, with costumes by one of New York’s most celebrated designers, David Quinn — known for his work with artists such as Bridget Everett and Darrel Thorne.
The Golden Cock marks the Heartbeat Opera directorial debut for director and co-creator Nico Krell, who has assistant directed the past three drag extravaganzas. He has directed projects at Lincoln Center, the wild project, Mercury Store, The University of Toronto, TheaterLab, Princeton Summer Theater, and Lucid Body House and is a recipient of the Louis Sudler Prize, Princeton University's highest honor in the creative arts.
This year's star-studded cast features soprano Ariana Wehr, a graduate of the Cafritz Young Artist Program at the Washington National Opera; contralto Sara Couden, who has been praised by Opera News for her “unusually rich and resonant” voice; countertenor Daniel Moody, who makes “a profoundly startling impression” (The New York Times); tenor Elliott Paige, who was a member in the Grammy nominated recording of X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X; bassist John Taylor Ward, whose performances have been praised for their “Stylish abandon” (The New Yorker); and emcee Maxim Ibadov, who is an arts specialist in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, a teaching associate at Park Avenue Armory, and a National Coordinator for RUSA LGBTQ .
Additionally, special guest John Holiday, who has been described as “one of the finest countertenors of his generation” (Los Angeles Times), will take the stage during the Gala (November 9 at 7:30).
Heartbeat's seven past drag extravaganzas include Messy Messiah; Hot Mama: Singing Gays Saving Gaia; Dragus Maximus: A Homersexual Opera Odyssey; All the World’s a Drag! Shakespeare in love...with opera; Queens of the Night: Mozart in Space; Miss Handel; and Purcell's The Fairy Queen.
"One of the most unique and cutting edge troupes in the industry."
— Observer
“This small, adventurous company strives to make opera
a visceral, intimate and immediate ‘encounter'”
— The New York Times
“Every Heartbeat event feels like a happening.”
— Opera News
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Heartbeat Opera was founded in 2014 to create incisive adaptations and revelatory arrangements of classics, reimagining them for the here and now. Since then Heartbeat Opera “has already contributed more to opera’s vitality than most major American companies” (New York Times), and has established itself as a highly-respected, innovative force in the opera world. A year ago, after nine years as Co-Music Director, Jacob Ashworth became Artistic Director, with Daniel Schlosberg as Music Director, and Tim Hausmann as Executive Director. After a triumphant first season under new leadership, Heartbeat Opera's legacy of radical adaptations of classic opera continues, and the company “hasn’t skipped a beat” (New York Times). Amidst distressing news of theaters contracting and shuttering across the country, we hope to help keep Opera thriving by bringing in new audiences, reimagining the classics, and telling the stories only opera can tell.
In its first nine seasons, Heartbeat Opera has presented fourteen fully-realized productions, often featuring new chamber arrangements and English translations. Heartbeat Opera adaptations, which can be seen as world premieres of classics, speak to the moment, here and now. Fidelio featured a primarily-Black cast and more than 100 incarcerated singers from six prison choirs. Carmen was set on the U.S./Mexico border and featured accordion, electric guitar, and saxophone. In Tosca, a mostly Middle-Eastern cast braved the authoritarian censorship of an unnamed religious regime to tell their story. Heartbeat Opera has shared its work at the Kennedy Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Broad Stage, The Mondavi Center, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, and Chamber Music North West. It staged the first ever opera performance on The High Line and has mounted its immensely popular, interdisciplinary Halloween Drag Extravaganza each year at iconic venues such as National Sawdust and Roulette. During the pandemic, Heartbeat took Lady M, its adaptation of Verdi’s Macbeth, online and sold out 32 Virtual Soirées, reaching 740 households across 5 continents; it also created Breathing Free, a visual album, which was nominated for the 2021 Drama League Award for Outstanding Digital Concert Production.
Heartbeat Opera has been hailed across the national and international press, including in four features in The New York Times, in stories on CNN and the BBC, and in an ALL ARTS/WNET documentary: “Bracing—icy vodka shots of opera instead of ladles of cream sauce” (The New York Times), “elegant and boisterous” (New Yorker), “fascinating and gorgeous” (Observer), “ingenious” (Wall Street Journal), “gripping and entertaining” (Opernwelt), “a flatout triumph” (Opera News).
Heartbeat Opera has collaborated with organizations such as Atlas DIY and A BroaderWay to bring opera education to young people in NYC, and during its west coast tour of FIDELIO was represented by the world class artist agency Opus 3 Artists. After taking the leap to welcome new leadership last year, as our founders moved onto our Board, we are proud to report that Heartbeat Opera “hasn’t skipped a beat,” and continues to push the boundaries, “demonstrating the strengths that make it so vital to New York’s opera scene” (The New York Times).
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For further information, press tickets, photos, and to arrange interviews, please contact Aleba & Co. at 212/206-1450 or aleba@alebaco.com.
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