Heartbeat Opera Launches ONE ACT FESTIVAL Featuring New Works, 3/18

Heartbeat Opera is a new company intent upon re-imagining opera in intimate spaces for a new generation. Employing a minimalism that allows the emotional integrity of the music to shine through, the company's work focuses on the body of the singer and the visceral power of the music. Co-Artistic Directors Louisa Proske andEthan Heard, who trained together in the Directing program at the Yale School of Drama, are committed to nurturing the actor in every singer they work with. The company creates productions of classics and new pieces that are daring and visceral-productions that manifest the emotional grandeur and theatrical power of opera with minimal means. Heartbeat's one-act festival presentation of György Kurtág's Kafka-Fragments, directed by Heard, and the New York premiere of Jacques Offenbach's Daphnis & Chloé, in a new English translation directed by Proske, marks this young company's debut. Heartbeat Opera's resident music ensemble Cantata Profana, described by The New York Times as "a stylish early music ensemble," will provide musical accompaniment.

György Kurtág's magnum opus Kafka-Fragments (1985-7) captures forty fleeting moments. Two travelers - played by Annie Rosen (mezzo-soprano) and Jacob Ashworth (violin) - are intertwined in a kaleidoscopic dream. Sharp images burst forth creating a montage of human experience: memories, joys, woes, and exclamations illuminate the void and disappear like shooting stars.

Jacques Offenbach's comic firestorm Daphnis & Chloé is a raunchy story of two innocent country youths who are initiated into the art of love by the lecherous God Pan and a horde of rowdy Bacchantes. With a new orchestration for five instrumentalists by Daniel Schlosberg and a new English translation by Michaël Attias in collaboration withLouisa Proske and Jacob Ashworth, Heartbeat Opera will resurrect this forgotten masterpiece in a deliciously naughty production.

Heartbeat Opera's Co-Artistic Directors Ethan Heard and Louisa Proske have assembled a team of accomplished artists for these new productions. In Kafka-Fragments, Heard will direct mezzo-soprano Annie Rosen who will be accompanied by violinist Jacob Ashworth. In Daphnis & Chloé Proske will direct a cast featuring Kristin Gornstein as Xantippe, Nicole Haslett as Chloé, Alexandra Loutsion as Calisto, Karin Mushegain as Daphnis,Molly Netter as Amalthea and Gary Ramsey as God Pan. Louis Lohraseb will provide musical direction, Chloe Treat will choreograph.

The creative team for both productions includes Reid Thompson (set design), Beth Goldenberg (costume design),Oliver Wason (lighting design), Nicholas Hussong (projection design), and Jon Carter (hair and makeup design).

Kafka-Fragments and Daphnis & Chloé will run in repertory with back-to-back shows on Friday, March 20 and Sunday, March 22. On March 20 both shows will run together as a Gala celebration performance; tickets, $100, include admission to both shows and a champagne reception. Performances will take place Wednesday, March 18:Kafka-Fragments at 8pm; Thursday, March 19: Daphnis & Chloé at 8pm; Friday, March 20: Festival Gala Double Bill at 8pm; Saturday, March 21: Daphnis & Chloé at 3pm and 8pm; Sunday, March, 22: Kafka-Fragments at 2pm andDaphnis & Chloé at 3:30pm. Regular single show tickets are $20, and Opera Virgin Tickets are $15. Tickets can be purchased online at heartbeatopera.org/tickets.

Kafka-Fragments will run approximately 60 minutes.
Daphnis & Chloé will run approximately 70 minutes.

About the Composers

György Kurtág was born in Romania in 1926. Over the last decade, he has been "acclaimed as the post-Webern master of brevity and intensely musical condensation." Kafka-Fragments is his Opus 24. "Scored for two companion instruments in the upper registers, its musical means are of penetration, its timbral effects veering from fleeting delicacy to slashing harshness." "As its libretto, Fragments extracts snippets and isolating reflections from Franz Kafka (1883-1924), the 20th-century's master of conflicted revelation. Chosen largely from letters to Milena Jesenska and from the so-called Blue Octavo Notebooks, a series of school exercise books Kafka used during a pre-1920 hiatus from his famed diary, they range from ironic bemusement to self-loathing. By and large, the texts are philosophical orientations; Max Brod, Kafka's friend and executor, left these particular notebooks out of the collected diaries, writing that they 'are made up almost entirely of literary ideas, fragments, and aphorisms (without reference to the everyday world).' Small wonder that Kurtág, one of the more reticent people in contemporary art, gravitated towards them for his big cycle." (Alan Lockwood)

Jacques Offenbach (1819 - 1880) rose to unprecedented world fame in the middle of the 19th century. His operettas were produced in Vienna, Berlin, London, Warsaw, and New York. All of Paris was drunk on his buoyant melodies; everyone from Emperors to common folk ran in the doors of the theatres to be electrified by Offenbach's singular mélange of irresistible charm, musical elegance, and scandalous raunchiness. While catering to the hedonistic cravings of the French Second Empire, Offenbach managed ingeniously to hold the mirror up to its hypocrisies and fatal blind spots, even to predict its looming downfall. Next to his more famous full-length pieces, there are nearly a hundred charming, practically unknown one-act operettas waiting to be rediscovered.

About the Performers in Kafka-Fragments

Annie Rosen (Mezzo-Soprano)
With a voice that "switches from honeylike to powerful and even frightening in seconds" (New Haven Independent), mezzo-soprano Annie Rosen lends her distinctive artistry to early, standard, and contemporary repertoire. In April she joins the Lyric Opera of Chicago's Ryan Opera Center for emerging artists. Last summer she covered the role of Ni Gui-zhen in the premiere of Huang Ruo's Mandarin-language opera Dr. Sun Yat-Sen with the Santa Fe Opera, as well as singing Kitty Oppenheimer in excerpts from John Adams' Doctor Atomic. Past opera credits include the Metropolitan Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and the Teatro Regio di Torino, among others. A chamber music devotee, with Cantata Profana she has added Ligeti's Nouvelles aventures, Berio's Folk Songs, atonal music of Webern and Stravinsky, and Thomas Adès' Life Story to her concert repertoire. She joyfully returns to Heartbeat Opera after performing Anna I in last season's Die Sieben Todsünden. annierosenmezzo.com

Jacob Ashworth (Violin)
Ashworth serves as violinist, conductor, and Artistic Director of the vocal and instrumental chamber ensembleCantata Profana, and as Co-Music Director for Heartbeat Opera. A performer of all styles, Jacob has been praised by The New York Times as a baroque violinist for his "diligent attention to period style," and is a current member of the Yale Baroque Ensemble, while his other recent highlights range from a recital of the complete Brahms sonatas to a staged production of Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire at the Yale Cabaret, a tour in Mexico to premiere his commission of Francisco Ladrón de Guevara's Variations for Solo Violin, and conducting the premiere of Daniel Schlosberg's opera Frau Trude. Performances as a duo with pianist Lee Dionne have recently included the premiere of Susan Kander's Hermestänze, a cycle for violin and piano, which Jacob also commissioned. Jacob continues to exhibit a virtuosic breadth of ability and deep love of collaboration this season, returning for concerts in Mexico, giving recitals in New York, New Jersey, and New Haven, visiting Canada and New Hampshire for artist residencies, and touring Europe with the Yale Schola Cantorum.

About the Performers in Daphnis & Chloé

Karin Mushegain (Daphnis)
Young American mezzo Karin Mushegain, called "superb" (The New York Times), and possessing "a rich voice and infectious theatricality" (Colorado Gazette), is captivating audiences with her exciting, energetic portrayals, dramatic poise, and dynamic vocal sound. During the 2014-2015 season, the mezzo joins Gotham Chamber Opera as the title role in El Gato Con Botas, Austin Lyric Opera for her role debut as Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Mid Atlantic Opera as Maddalena in Rigoletto, Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Bakersfield Symphony, a role debut as Paquette inCandid with Pasadena Opera, and a recital tour with composer and Van Cliburn Award winner, Paul Romero. Future seasons include Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro with Seattle Opera, a return to the stage in her signature role of La Cenerentola, among others. Ms. Mushegain recently made her Seattle Opera debut as the title role in La Cenerentola, where she was hailed as an "excellent singing actress - sailing through the title role with an assured performance." (Seattle Times) During the 2013 - 2014 season, she made her role debut as Carmen with Opera San Luis Obispo to great acclaim, sang the title role in La Cenerentola with Pensacola Opera, and debuted in concert with the Virginia Symphony in Rossini's Stabat Mater. She also performed Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia with Lyrique-en-mer in France, joined the esteemed Festival Mozaic for Villa-Lobos' Bachianas Brasileiras, and portrayed her first Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro with Virginia Opera, where she performed the role "as convincingly and as delightfully as any I can recall...with exquisite comedic timing," (Washington Post) Other highlights include Flora inLa Traviata with New York City Opera, Hansel in Hansel und Gretel with Virginia Opera, Dorabella in Cosí fan tuttewith Opera Memphis, and Alessandro in Handel's Tolomeo with Glimmerglass Opera.

Alexandra Loutsion (Calisto)
With a voice that is "beautifully colored and deeply moving" (Parterre Box), Alexandra Loutsion continues to be recognized for her passionate performances and vocal versatility as a rising star on the operatic stage. This season, she debuts with Wolf Trap Opera singing Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly with the National Symphony Orchestra and North Carolina Opera singing Donna Anna in Don Giovanni. She also debuts with the Santa Fe Symphony in Verdi's Requiem and joins the Lenape Center of New York City in The Purchase of Manhattan, a world premiere by Brent Michael Davis. Past seasons include roles with Pittsburgh Opera, Dayton Opera, Central City Opera, and Opera Santa Barbara; covering Leonore in a new production of Fidelio at the Santa Fe Opera conducted by Harry Bicket; and singing the lead role of Isabella in Wagner's Das Liebesverbot as part of the Ring Festival LA. Ms. Loutsion was a winner of the Metropolitan National Council District Auditions and Long Beach Mozart Competition, as well as a finalist in the Fritz and Lavinia Jensen Foundation Competition. Among her awards are prizes from the Santa Fe Opera (the Anna Case MacKay Award and the Donald Gramm Memorial Award) and the Shoshana Foundation's Richard F. Gold Career Grant. She holds degrees in vocal performance from the University of Southern California and Ithaca College.

Nicole Haslett (Chloé)
Hailed as "one of the most enchanting sopranos I have heard in a while" by Opera News, soprano Nicole Haslett returns to the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis for Sophie in Picker's Emmeline and sings her first performances of Handel's Messiah with the New Choral Society in the 2014-15 season. She also joins the roster of the Metropolitan Opera in the 2014-15 season for its production of Iolanta, where she sang excerpts of Zerbinetta from Ariadne auf Naxos and Nannetta from Falstaff on the stage during the finals of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She joined Chautauqua Opera this summer in The Ballad of Baby Doe, singing Sarah and covering the title role. As a Resident Artist with Portland Opera, she covered the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor and Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance. Ms. Haslett is a former Gerdine Young Artist of the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, where she sang Echo and covered Bar?e in Smetana's The Kiss. Other recent performances include Nannetta in Verdi's Falstaff with Martina Arroyo's Prelude to Performance, and Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro at Opera in the Ozarks. In the summer of 2012, Ms. Haslett spent six weeks in Beijing with the I SING BEIJING program, with whom also performed selections from ??? (Bái Máo N?, The White-Haired Girl) at Alice Tully Hall the following spring. In addition to being a Metropolitan Opera Grand Finalist, Ms. Haslett is a 2012 Alan M. and Joan Taub Ades Vocal Competition winner and a 2012 Career Bridges Grant winner. She holds a Master's in Vocal Performance from the Manhattan School of Music where she performed Florestine in Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles as well as Eve in Haydn's Die Shöpfung. Her performance credits at New York University, where she earned her Bachelor of Music and won the Excellence in Vocal Performance Award, include Despina in Così fan tutte and Jennie Parsons in Weill's Down in the Valley.

Molly Netter (Amalthea)
Molly Netter enlivens complex and beautiful music with a voice described as "crisp and clear, white yet warm" (Seen and Heard International). As a soprano soloist, Ms. Netter has performed with Julliard415 at Lincoln Center and toured internationally in Japan, Singapore and Burma under Masaaki Suzuki. Hailed for her "command of the stage with a full range of Baroque stage conventions" (Early Music America), Ms. Netter has performed at the Boston Early Music Festival, Trinity Wall Street, and with the Yale Schola Cantorum under Nicholas McGegan, David Hill and Simon Carrington. Ms. Netter has premiered numerous works by David Lang, Simon Emmerson, Ran Duan, and Sven-David Sandström at The Kennedy Center, Yale School of Music, Oberlin Conservatory, and the Stuttgart Festival under Helmuth Rilling. With a wide range of repertoire, Ms. Netter has performed as soloist with Cantata Profana based in New Haven, the Clarion Music Society and Experiments in Opera in New York City, and recently toured Northern Germany as vocalist with the Department of Jazz trio. As a guest with Yale Opera this season, Netter performed in Puccini's Suor Angelica and the role of "Barbarina" in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro. Ms. Netter holds an ad hoc Bachelor of Music degree in composition and contemporary voice from Oberlin Conservatory and a Master's degree in early music voice from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music where she studied with James Taylor. Between degrees, she taught English in Kyoto, Japan.

Kristen Gornstein (Xantippe)
Described as, "engaging", with an "elegant voice", by the New York Times, mezzosoprano Kristin Gornstein performs opera and concert work with equal enthusiasm. Most recently, Kristin debuted to critical acclaim the role of Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia with Loft Opera. Other recent performances include the North American premiere of Johan de Meij's 4th Symphony, The Symphony of Songs, with the New York Wind Symphony, performances in Stockholm, Sweden and Rotterdam, Holland with the Opera Mecatronica ensemble, Carmen in La Tragédie de Carmen with Indianapolis Opera, and Romeo in Bellini's I Capuleti e I Montecchi with Opera MODO in Princeton, New Jersey. Last year, Kristin was an Encouragement Award Winner in the Peter Elvins Vocal Competition in Belmont, Massachusetts, winner of the Artistic Director's Award in Connecticut Concert Opera's Opera Idol Competition, and sang as an Apprentice Artist with Caramoor Bel Canto under the baton of maestro Wil Crutchfield. In September, in collaboration with Opera Works (Los Angeles, CA), Kristin wrote and premiered a semiimprovised piece for mezzo-soprano, piano, violin and cello at the Boulder Fringe Festival in Boulder, Colorado. This summer she will be a Fellow in the Vocal Arts Program at Tanglewood. In search of the best cup of coffee in the world, Kristin now lives in Brooklyn. To learn more, visit her at www.kristingornstein.com.

Gary Ramsey (Pan)
Ramsey most recently won the Osgood Prize for his performance in the title role of Salieri's, Falstaff, at CSC Repretory with dell'Arte Opera (New York Times Review). He was described as a "tour de force" (NY Times Review) performing the title role in Bum Phillips: All-American Opera. He has also appeared as Don Alfonso in Cosi Fan Tutte, with Opera Breve, Ichabod Crane in Sleepy Hollow and Mr. Braxton in Thomas Pasatieri's God Bless Us Everyone, (World Premiere) with Dicapo Opera. Other credits include: Older Thompson in Tom Cipullo's Glory Denied at Chelsea Opera (New York Premiere), to rave reviews (NY Times Review); Germont in La Traviata, at the Tuscia Festival in Italy (a role first developed in workshop with Nico Castel, Metropolitan Opera); The Father inHansel and Gretel, Opera Manhattan; Farmer Beanpole in Tobias Picker's, Fantastic Mr. Fox, (New York Premiere); Thomas Putnam in The Crucible for the Mezzo Festival in Hungary and aired on Mezzo Television. He has studied with renowned Baritone, Sherrill Milnes, and has also performed with Mr. Milnes' V.O.I.C. Experience at Disneyworld, Epcot performance.

About the Heartbeat OperaCreative Team

Ethan Heard (Co-Artistic Director and Director of Kafka-Fragments) directs plays, musicals, and opera. He is equally at home creating productions of new work, Shakespeare, Sondheim, and Monteverdi. The Boston Globe called his A Little Night Music at Berkshire Theatre Festival starring Kate Baldwin, Gregg Edelman, and Penny Fuller a "stirring production...with a certain emotional eloquence and lovely dreamlike quality." As Founding Co-Artistic Director of Heartbeat Opera, Ethan has directed The Fairy Queen and The Seven Deadly Sins. Recent world premieres include Jason Cady, Aaron Siegel and Matthew Welch's Sisyphus (Experiments in Opera) and Mark Campbell and Marisa Michelson's The Other Room starring Phoebe Strole (Inner Voices). While earning his MFA at Yale School of Drama, he directed Sunday in the Park with George, Julius Caesar, and Amelia Roper's Lottie in the Late Afternoon. As Artistic Director of Yale Cabaret, he staged Pierrot Lunaire and co-created Basement Hades andTrannequin. He directed L'Orfeo and Ardo, Ardo with Yale Baroque Opera Projectand L'incoronazione di Poppeaand The Producers at Princeton. Other directing includes The Cat and the Canary (BTF), The Gay Ivy (Dixon Place),Ipheginia and Other Daughters and Proof (Santa Fe Theater Festival), Young Jean Lee's Pullman WA and Lauren Yee's in a word (Williamstown Workshop). He has assisted Nicholas Martin, Steve Cosson, Thomas Kail, and Mark Brokaw. Ethan received his BA in Theater Studies from Yale College and won the Sledge Prize for Performing Arts. He toured the world with the Yale Whiffenpoofs, singing more than 200 concerts in 25 countries. He has taught at Princeton University, Friends Seminary, and the O'Neill Theater Center. He is Resident Director of Cantata Profana, a member of the Yale School of Drama Board of Advisors, and a member of SDC. Upcoming: Cavalli's Erismenaand Bells Are Ringing starring Kate Baldwin. ethanheard.com

Louisa Proske (Co-Artistic Director and Director of Daphnis & Chloé) is a versatile director of opera, classical theatre, and new work. Her recent production of Salieri's Falstaff with Dell'Arte Opera Company has been called a "revelation," a "merry wives' success" and "everything an opera performance should be"; other productions includeLucia Di Lammermoor (Heartbeat Opera); Poulenc's opera La Voix Humaine (Yale Opera); the world premiere ofInvisible Cities at the Italian Academy New York; Nostalgia Kills You and ReAnimator Requiem (Experiments in Opera); Anthony Braxton's Trillium J (Roulette, as Associate Director); Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire (Avant Music Festival/ The Wild Project); Pinkalicious the Musical (Hangar Theatre, Ithaca); This Same Progeny of Evils (Hangar Theatre); The Winstons (Juilliard School of Drama); Rum 'n Coca Cola in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad; Shakespeare'sCymbeline at Yale School of Drama; Fassbinder's The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (Strasberg Institute); an international tour of Macbeth; As You Like It (Yale Summer Cabaret Shakespeare Festival); 'Tis Pity She's A Whore(The Tank, NYC); The Lover (Yale School of Drama); a theatrical staging of Purcell's vocal music entitled REVELS(Manhattan School of Music); A Servant To Two Masters (Edinburgh Fringe Festival); The Barber Shop (Cambridge Footlights); 4.48 Psychosis; The Importance of Being Earnest; No Exit (all Apollonysus Theatre, York, UK); and a tour of Lucy's Dream through schools in India and Nepal. Louisa holds a Master of Fine Arts in Directing from Yale School of Drama. She has assisted such prominent opera and theatre directors as Willy Decker, Harry Kupfer and Robert Woodruff. Louisa's translation of Fassbinder's film script In a Year with 13 Moons was presented at Yale Repertory Theatre, directed by Robert Woodruff and featuring Bill Camp and Joan Macintosh. Louisa is the proud Co-Artistic Director of Heartbeat Opera, and is an alumna of the Drama League's Director Project and the Soho Rep. Writer-Director Lab. She is also on faculty at Maggie Flanigan Studio teaching Shakespeare Acting and Script Analysis. Website: https://yaledrama.digication.com/louisa_proske

Jacob Ashworth (Violinist in Kafka-Fragments , Co-Music Director of Heartbeat Opera and Artistic Director of Cantata Profana).

Daniel Schlosberg (Co-Music Director of Heartbeat Opera, Orchestrator of Daphnis & Chloé)
Works by composer and pianist Daniel Schlosberg have been played by the Dover Quartet, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic, Yale Philharmonia, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Yale Baroque Ensemble, Lorelei Ensemble, and David Shifrin. Daniel was awarded a 2014 Charles Ives Scholarship by the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a 2014 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award. Upcoming projects include a score for a short silent film, a collaborative dance project with Arx Duo, and a work for the Yale Symphony Orchestra to commemorate its 50th season. He is also co-founding a composer-performing ensemble that will debut in 2015 with concerts at the Beijing Modern Music Festival and in New York City. Recent theatrical work includes his chamber opera Frau Trude, arrangement/music direction of Kurt Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins (Heartbeat Opera), re-orchestration/conducting of Stephen Sondheim's Sunday in the Park With George (Yale School of Drama), and performance of a staged version of Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire (Yale Cabaret). This spring, Daniel will music direct Bertolt Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle at Yale Repertory Theatre, premiering a score by David Lang written especially for the production. Daniel has appeared at Chamber Music Northwest and the Phoenix Winter Chamber Music Festival, where he has performed with such artists as Fred Sherry, Ani Kavafian, Alan Vogel, and Tara Helen O'Connor. He is a founding member of the chamber ensemble Cantata Profana, with whom he performs regularly. Daniel received his MM and MMA degrees from the Yale School of Music, studying with Martin Bresnick, David Lang, Aaron Kernis, and Chris Theofanidis. His website is www.danschlosbergmusic.com

Louis Lohraseb (Music Director of Daphnis and Chloé)
As a Conducting Fellow at the Yale School of Music, Louis Lohraseb currently studies with Maestro Shinik Hahm, and serves as assistant conductor to the Yale Philharmonia. He is also artistic director of the Amadeus Orchestra, and music director of the Cheshire Symphony Orchestra. He is a student of the late Maestro Lorin Maazel, as well as Maestro James Conlon, whom he assisted at the 2014 Ravinia Festival for the productions of Don Giovanni and Le Nozze di Figaro. Mr. Lohraseb took up music at age three after discovering his love of opera. He has since studied piano with Elizabeth Parisot, Findlay Cockrell and Amy Stanley, composition with Robert Levin, musicology with Anne-Marie Reynolds, musicology and composition with William Carragan, conducting and composition with James Walker, and conducting with Gerard Floriano. Mr. Lohraseb performed and assised in both operatic and symphonic literature at the Castleton Festival in Virginia. He was the assistant director of the Geneseo Symphony Orchestra and the music director of the Friends of Music Orchestra composed of Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra members. Conducting from the keyboard, Mr. Lohraseb has performed several Mozart piano concertos, as well as three Bach harpsichord concertos. Recent credits also include the Mozart two-piano concerto and the Rakhmaninov Second Concerto with the Geneseo Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Lohraseb has participated in many chamber music recitals, including those with members of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. His compositions have been performed internationally, and his recent musicological work on the sources of Anton Bruckner's Sixth Symphony was presented at a musicological conference at Oxford University in April 2013 and was published in the November 2013 edition of The Bruckner Journal. This upcoming April, Mr. Lohraseb will present the world premiere of the 1878 version of Bruckner's Fourth Symphony. He was graduated summa cum laude from SUNY Geneseo in 2013, where he was an Edgar Fellows Honors student, and was made a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Chloe Treat (Choreographer of Daphnis & Chloé)
Chloe Treat is a New York based director and choreographer. Born and raised in Texas, she directs, choreographs and assists on a number of musicals, plays, operas, weird outdoor performance pieces and feminist westerns. Recently she's been involved in productions of Kansas City Choir Boy, two national tours of The Lightning Thief and briefly travelled back to her home state to direct and choreograph a production of Blood Wedding.

Reid Thompson (Scenic Designer)
Scenic design credits include A Little Night Music, Design For Living, The Cat and the Canary (Berkshire Theater Festival), A Street Car Named Desire (Yale Repertory Theater), Antigonick (SummerWorks Theater Festival, Toronto - My Theater Award nom.), Grace and The Other Room (Inner Voices), HAM (Ars Nova), Romeo and Julietand Sunday in the Parkwith George (Yale School of Drama), Crazy Shepherds, The Ugly One, Derivatives, Dracula,This., Radio Hour, (Yale Cabaret), Lulz (Yale College), Bekah Brunstetter's Mine, Nikole Beckwith's Everything is Ours, and Zayd Dohrn's Muckrakers (Chautauqua Theater Company). Upcoming: Erismena (Yale Baroque Opera Project) and Bells are Ringing (Berkshire Theater Festival). Projection design: he left quietly (Yale Cabaret). Costume design: Grace and The Other Room (Inner Voices). Before pursuing a career in design Reid worked as a scenic artist at the Metropolitan Opera and Hudson Scenic Studios, amongst others. Reid is a proud graduate of the Yale School of Drama and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a member of USA-829.ReidThompsonDesign.com

Beth Goldenberg (Costume Designer)
Goldenberg designs costumes for theatre, opera and dance. Her credits include the Glimmerglass Festival productions of Pergolisi's Stabat Mater, choreographed by Jessica Lang, and the premier of a new adaptation of David Lang's the little match girl passion, directed by Francesca Zambello. She will be returning to Glimmerglass this summer to design Verdi's Macbeth, directed by Anne Bogart. Recent designs for theatre include By the Way, Meet Vera Stark at Juilliard, Wyoming at Lesser America, Family Play at The New Ohio, Souvenir at Portland Stage, andSmoke at The Flea. She holds a BFA from Boston University and an MFA from NYU/Tisch.bethgoldenbergdesign.com

Oliver Wason (Lighting Designer)
Wason designs lighting for theater, opera, dance, music, and anything in between. He designed Heartbeat's Fairy Queen this fall and has also designed for Cantata Profana. Upcoming designs include Peerless (Cherry Lane), Tar Beach (Luna Stage), and Erismena (Yale Baroque Opera). Recent designs include A Little Night Music (Berkshire Theater Festival), The Other Room and Grace (Premieres NYC), Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Berkeley Rep, Yale Rep), Sunday in the Park with George, Julius Caesar, Sagittarius Ponderosa (Yale School of Drama), and an unlucky 13 shows at the Yale Cabaret including Pierrot Lunaire, The Small Things, The Maids and In the Bar of a Toyo Hotel. In New York his work has been seen at HERE Arts Center, the Ontological Incubator, The Spoon Theater, The Paradise Factory, and LaMAMA among other venues. BA Hunter College, MFA Yale. oliverwason.com

Nicholas Hussong (Projection Designer)
Hussong is a Projection Designer for opera, theatre, music, and dance. Some New York work includes The Other Room (Premieres NYC), AGMI (ANT Fest), Latrell Jackson (Joe's Pub), So Long Willy (LaMaMa Summershare). Associate on: FOUND (Atlantic), Kansas City Choir Boy (HERE Art Center), and Illusionists (Marquee). Before NYC, Nicholas was the Artistic Associate at Triad Stage in Greensboro, NC where he continues to design several new works based on Appalachian life written by Preston Lane with music by Laurelyn Dossett. Other credits include These Paper Bullets (Yale Rep), The Mountaintop (Playmakers Rep), Antigonick (Summerworks Toronto),Rapsody by Composer Gordon, and The Baseball Music Project with the Nashville Symphony and the Hartford Symphony. nickhussong.com

Heidi Reklis (Festival Producer)
Reklis is very pleased to be working with Heartbeat for the first time. She recently relocated from Chapel Hill, NC where she was the General Manager of PlayMakers Repertory Company since 2006. Favorite productions in her years at PlayMakers include Sondheim's Assassins; Kander and Ebb's Cabaret; The Parchman Hour by Mike Wiley;Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks and Master Harold and the Boys by Athol Fugard. She is excited to be branching into the medium of opera with the beautiful productions of Kafka-Fragments and Daphnis and Chloé. Heidi received her degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she began working in the performing arts.

About Heartbeat Opera

Founded by Ethan Heard and Louisa Proske, recent graduates of Yale School of Drama's MFA Directing program,Heartbeat Opera returns to the essence of opera. In intimate settings, with reduced orchestrations, they place the singers - their presence, passion, and superhuman ability to produce miraculous sounds - at the center of their work. Their productions of classics and new pieces are daring and visceral; they manifest the emotional grandeur and theatrical power of opera with minimal means. The company embodies the future of opera by celebrating young artists and engaging new audiences.

Heartbeat believes in nurturing younger audiences by making tickets affordable. This March, they are launching anOpera Virgin Program, which offers $15 tickets to people who have never experienced opera before.

Heartbeat's resident musical ensemble Cantata Profana is a vocal and instrumental chamber group devoted to performing an eclectic repertoire. Cantata Profana members, led by Jacob Ashworth and Daniel Schlosberg, will develop and perform custom orchestrations for Heartbeat Opera productions. www.heartbeatopera.org

About Cantata Profana

Praised as everything from "a stylish early-music ensemble" that plays "with diligent attention to period style," to having "an appropriately loose, folksy vigor" (New York Times), Cantata Profana is a fearless new vocal and instrumental ensemble dedicated to bringing eclectic and diverse masterpieces together and presenting them with a narrative programmatic voice and an engaging sense of theatricality.

Founded in 2013, Cantata Profana is comprised of a dedicated core group of nine performers, a resident director, and a manager of operations, all of whom work together to create each season. Along with sharing administrative responsibilities, core musicians perform together in smaller chamber recitals throughout the year, while the ensemble remains flexible enough to accommodate the larger forces required for each of our mainstage performances. With a stunning roster of some of the best young musicians from New York, New Haven, and abroad, Cantata Profana is able to combine everything from piano/vocal music to baroque trio sonatas to chamber operas, all in the same evening.?

Cantata Profana seeks to create an experience for the audience member that goes beyond the traditional scope of music performance, by combining virtuosic musical talent with exciting staging, lighting, and design ideas. Cantata Profana concerts often incorporate literary elements, or reflect upon themes in visual artwork that complement the musical programming. Although we began as a musical ensemble, we have cultivated a broader artistic identity that stimulates audiences' imaginations at all levels.

About the Sheen Center

The Sheen Center is a forum to highlight the true, the good, and the beautiful as they have been expressed throughout the ages. Cognizant of our creation in the image and likeness of God, the Sheen Center aspires to present the heights and depths of human expression in thought and culture, featuring humankind as fully alive. At the Sheen Center, we proclaim that life is worth living, especially when we seek to deepen, explore, challenge, and stimulate ourselves, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, intellectually, artistically, and spiritually.

The Sheen Center complex encompasses 2 Theaters, 4 rehearsal studios and an Art Gallery.

To post a comment, you must register and login.