Listen to Ethan discuss Heartbeat Opera on the National Endowment for the Arts podcast here.
Listen to Ethan discuss FIDELIO on NPR here.
THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY
“Signature’s The Bridges of Madison County sings with old-school pleasure. Brown’s vivacious score is rife with passion. The production, handsomely guided by director Ethan Heard and choreographer Kelly Crandall d’Amboise, buoyantly showcases Davie’s supple soprano.” - Washington Post
“Director Ethan Heard hits the nail on the head. With a brilliant traverse stage design by Lee Savage, Heard’s directing shines. Tender, intimate, and erotically intelligent.” -Broadway World
PACIFIC OVERTURES
“Director Ethan Heard and company have pulled off something close to miraculous. Savvy, relevant and comprehensive direction by Heard.” -Broadway World
“Staged magnetically by Heard. Heard and music director Alexander Tom add novel, flavorful flourishes to the proceedings.” -Washington Post
WHICH WAY TO THE STAGE
“Nothing short of magical. Which Way to the Stage is the Signature directorial debut of Associate Artistic Director Ethan Heard, and it certainly indicates his career with the company will be one to watch. Heard's love of the theater echoes in this love letter of play, and the performances he draws out are insightful and honest. The whole production is utterly brilliant.” -Broadway World
“A delightfully wry theater-world comedy directed with insight and affection by Ethan Heard. Vibrant performances. Stiletto-sharp comic timing. There’s authentic heart in this amusing play.” -Washington Post
HEARTBEAT OPERA
"Daring and imaginative. Heartbeat Opera [is] an enterprise that, while small and still young, has already contributed more to opera’s vitality than most major American companies." -Joshua Barone, The New York Times
“Bold and vivid... This small, adventurous company strives to make opera a visceral, intimate and immediate ‘encounter.’ 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, The New York Times
“Bracing — icy vodka shots of opera instead of ladles of cream sauce.” -Zachary Woolfe, The New York Times
“One of the most agile and dynamic companies on New York's indie opera scene. Every Heartbeat event feels like a happening.” -Opera News
FIDELIO
New York Times Critic’s Pick
“Powerful and honest. A moving indictment of mass incarceration. The famous prisoners’ chorus [is] still the emotional high point of the production and now a coup de theatre.” -Joshua Barone, The New York Times
“Stunning. Powerfully sung and revelatory. This Fidelio does not flinch at hard questions.” -Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times
“I nearly missed Heartbeat Opera’s Fidelio — reorchestrated, reduced and reimagined for the era of Black Lives Matter — and I’m so glad I didn’t. The production, staged smartly, deftly navigated the tricky art of adaptation with new English-language dialogue that felt urgent and powerful without pontificating. Even the moment that most risked heavy-handedness, the Prisoners’ Chorus performed by real American prison choirs on video, turned out to be one of the most poignant. The scene left me searching for tissues.” -Joshua Barone, The New York Times
“A categorically imaginative company, [Heartbeat Opera] has made its name with vital reshapings of repertory operas. I saw Fidelio, and was blindsided by its impact. The heartbreaking centerpiece of the production was the chorus “O welche Lust." Earlier this year, Heard and Schlosberg went to correctional facilities in the Midwest and filmed Beethoven’s chorus being sung by prisoners. Several letters from prisoners were on display. One member of Ubuntu wrote, “The creativity I possess is still within me, prison has not taken away my hope.” In the theatre, a video of the prisoners’ work substituted for a live performance of “O welche Lust.” Beethoven’s music was itself a spell of freedom for them—a virtual walk in open air. Heard and Schlosberg refused to coat this wrenching spectacle in feel-good sentiment. Mindful of American reality, they discarded the opera’s happy ending and imposed a bleak coda, with a scrambled, dissonant collage of Fidelio music and other Beethoven snippets to match.” -Alex Ross, The New Yorker
BREATHING FREE
2021 Drama League Award Nominee for Outstanding Digital Concert Production
“Grippingly produced.” -The Boston Globe
“Bracing, compelling, and heartbreaking. An artwork that strikes a resonant chord for these hard times. That is an achievement worth celebrating.” -Musical America
LADY M
“A groundbreaking and interactive feast! From both an artistic and promotional standpoint, the small company’s experiment is a big success as it places itself at the vanguard of new, virtual opera experiences, forging a path for other companies, big and small.” -Opera Wire
“Hacking the corporate contours of Zoom into a postmodern proscenium... Singers taking full advantage of their tiny frames. Lithe leadership and arrangements. The performances…manage to reach through the screen.” -Washington Post
BUTTERFLY
“Bold and vivid. Excerpts from Act I — especially crucial scenes when we see the beer-swilling Pinkerton (the vibrant tenor Mackenzie Whitney) before his wedding and some melting strands of the love duet — are intriguingly presented as dreamlike recollections. The most affecting element was the presentation of their child, a silent character. The devotion of the company to Puccini’s music was evident in the sensitive arrangement of the score for five strings and harp, a richly detailed yet delicate rendering that enhanced the drama’s intimacy.” -Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times
“In a program note, Heartbeat’s young leaders express their desire ‘to birth productions that tackle urgent questions confronting our society today—questions of otherness, misogyny, cultural appropriation, and crossing borders both literal and metaphysical.’ In an interview with the Times, however, the director, Ethan Heard, touched on another important point: ‘This opera is a masterpiece. We want to honor the beautiful writing and score, but inject some questioning into it, and bring people in closer proximity to it.’ The first of these sentiments makes Heartbeat Opera’s production relevant. The second, however, makes it worthwhile. What’s so pleasing about Heartbeat Opera’s Butterfly is how well its artistic intentions dovetail with its limited means. The orchestra is cut down, but to an arrangement for harp and string quintet that recalls the mellifluous elegance of the original. The cast members are young but promising enough that you wouldn’t mind hearing them in a grander production and a bigger space.” -Russell Platt, The New Yorker
DRAGUS MAXIMUS
“Stunning. Captivating. Eye-popping. The entire evening was a free-wheeling, fun-loving operatic romp, with tongue firmly in cheek but with beautiful music filling the air.” -Feast of Music
LA SUSANNA
“A thoughtful production that did full justice to a forgotten work. Heard gave new punch to an old story of female abuse at the hands of men.” -Anne Midgette, The Washington Post
“Fascinating and amazing. A great way for neophytes to introduce themselves to an art form with a long and complicated history.” -Observer
DIDO & AENEAS
“A radical endeavor—less pint-sized grand opera than an appropriation of the genre for theatre of the black-box type. A cocktail party degenerates into surreal anarchy, with witches prancing about and the lovers copulating in a bathtub. Elegant, boisterous, and melancholy by turns. The scale of the show felt exactly right.” -Alex Ross, The New Yorker
A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC
“In Act 2 of Berkshire Theatre Group’s stirring production, Madame Armfeldt proposes a toast: ‘To life! And to the only other reality — death!’ Heard’s Night Music has a certain emotional eloquence and a lovely dreamlike quality, but Madame Armfeldt’s “other reality’’ is there, too, thrumming beneath the surface. When Baldwin and Soo team up for “Every Day a Little Death,’’ it seems to expand to an existential lament, and you can hear a pin drop inside the Colonial Theatre.” -The Boston Globe
KAFKA-FRAGMENTS
“Gripping drama...under the clearly inspired guidance of Heartbeat co-artistic director Ethan Heard. A feat of virtuosity. A flat-out triumph.” -Opera News
BELLS ARE RINGING
“The production uncorks and sustains a fizzy energy. Heard’s affection for this material is palpable, and he draws deft performances from his cast.” -The Boston Globe
LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS
Nominated for five Berkshire Theatre Awards: Musical Production, Direction, Choreography, Set Design, and Costume Design
“Shrewd and revelatory. Utterly irresistible. Smart and appealing.” -The Berkshire Eagle
THE CAT AND THE CANARY
“The actors are superb in this exceptional production, but the real stars of the evening are composer and sound designer Steven Brush and director Ethan Heard. Heard’s cinematic direction is right on. A daring production, with stunning visual and aural effects and one hell of a cast – what more could you ask for in a theatrical performance?” -WBRK Radio