New York’s Heartbeat Opera has announced its 2021-22 season 

The season opens with “BREATHING FREE, a visual album,” a free outdoor screening at dusk with live performances focusing on Black empowerment in the arts. The work will feature excerpts from Beethoven’s “Fidelio,” Negro Spirituals, and songs by Harry T. Burleigh, Florence Price, Langston Hughes, Anthony Davis, Thulani Davis. The work is directed by Ethan Heard and filmmaker Anaiis Cisco.

Performance Date: Sept. 18 at Pier 63, Hudson River Park Trust

Ethan Heard directs “Messy Messiah” with music directed by Jacob Ashworth and arranged by Daniel Schlosberg. The performance will see the return of Heartbeat’s beloved annual drag opera extravaganza with familiar tunes by Handel, Tchaikovsky, Berlin, and many more.

Performance Dates: Dec. 16 & 17 at Roulette in Brooklyn

Beethoven’s “Fidelio” will be adopted and directed by Ethan heard and arranged & Music Directed by Daniel Schlosberg. The New English Dialogue will be Co-Written by Marcus Scott and Ethan Heard and will star Derrell Acon (Roc), Curtis Bannister (Stan), Kelly Griffin (Leah), Victoria Lawal (Marcy), Tim Mix (Pizarro), and more than 100 incarcerated singers in six prison choirs.

Performance Dates: Feb. 10-27, 2022 in NY, California, and Arizona

The production of the season will be “QUANDO, ossia Project ‘0‘” which will include in-person screenings with live performances in New York and Long Beach. The pilot of NO EVIL Projects will feature music from Gluck’s “Orfeo ed Euridice” and Verdi’s “La Traviata” and “Don Carlo.” The music will be directed and arranged by Daniel Schlosberg.

Performance Dates: April 2022

Heartbeat’s first commission “The Extinctionist,” will be performed in 2023 and will be a one-act opera. The opera was written by composer Daniel Schlosberg with a libretto by Amanda Quaid, based on her play. It will be directed, conceived, and developed by Louisa Proske and music directed by Jacob Ashworth.