Direction by Ethan Heard
Movement Direction by Emma Jaster
About the production and the core artistic team.
New York Times rave review.
New York Times preview piece gets at the heart of our artistic goals and inspirations.
Part of Heartbeat Opera's annual Spring Festival 2017 at Baruch Performing Arts Center, NY
White male artists invented the tragic geisha, Madama Butterfly, and in so doing fueled a stereotype that has dominated Western imagination ever since. This daring new adaptation of Puccini’s iconic romance explodes that legacy of fetishization and exposes the Sorrow left behind.
Photos by Russ Rowland
"This small, adventurous company strives to make opera a visceral, intimate and immediate 'encounter,' as they have said. Their alterations to masterpieces aim to get past dated elements that can mute the raw emotions and the timeless issues coursing within the original works."
– Anthony Tommasini, ‘Butterfly’ and ‘Carmen,’ in Bold and Vivid Cuts (The New York Times)
"handsome, minimal production ... would make a fine touring Butterfly staging" and "had a compelling anchor".
– Opera News, In Review: Madama Butterfly (5/20/17), Carmen (5/25/17)
"[W]hat’s so pleasing about Heartbeat Opera’s “Butterfly” is how well its artistic intentions dovetail with its limited means."
– Russell Platt, The Trailblazing Efforts of “Indie Opera” (The New Yorker)