Dan Schlosberg vividly recalls the humble beginnings of Heartbeat Opera. Eleven years ago, the company staged its very first performance in a yoga studio for an audience of just 30 people. Accompanied only by an upright piano salvaged from Craigslist and a single violin, the group presented Kurt Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins — a bold artistic choice that set the tone for the company’s future.
Schlosberg, who serves as musical director and co-founder, explains that the name Heartbeat was inspired by the intimacy of the performances. The idea was to place the audience just feet away from the singers, allowing their voices to resonate directly and viscerally, creating an emotional connection that would echo within the listener’s heart.
Over a decade later, Heartbeat Opera has grown into a vibrant and respected presence in the American opera scene. While many opera companies are navigating financial uncertainty, Heartbeat is thriving, recently surpassing an annual operating budget of $1 million. Yet despite this growth, the company has remained fiercely loyal to its founding vision: to bring grand, full-bodied opera to small and unconventional spaces.
The typical Heartbeat venue seats around 200 people, creating an immersive and personal experience for audiences. For the company’s artistic director and co-founder Jacob Ashworth, this scale is not a limitation but a deliberate artistic choice. He describes their mission as producing “big opera in a small space,” challenging the notion that opera must be performed on vast stages with lavish sets to be powerful or effective.
This philosophy allows Heartbeat to deliver all the emotional and musical intensity of traditional opera, but in a format that invites deeper engagement and immediacy. The company has gained a reputation for its inventive productions, daring adaptations, and a commitment to making opera relevant and accessible to modern audiences.
Heartbeat Opera’s success proves that innovation, intimacy, and ambition can coexist in a field often bound by tradition. With a steadily growing audience and a clear artistic identity, the company continues to redefine what opera can be, bringing it closer — quite literally — to the hearts of those who experience it.
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