Poet Yasus Afari. Yasus Afari
2022 Fidelio cast, from left: Derrell Acon, Curtis Bannister, Kelly Griffi n, Victoria Lawal and Corey McKern. Heartbeat Opera
By Nelson A. King
Heartbeat Opera — the New
York indie opera company whose
re-imagined, re-orchestrated,
and stripped-down stagings of
classic operas have been called
“radical” by The New Yorker and
“pioneering” by The New York
Times — is thrilled to mount a
four-city tour of its acclaimed
2018 adaptation of Beethoven’s
masterpiece, Fidelio.
Heartbeat Artistic Director,
Ethan Heard conceived Fidelio
for the era of Black Lives Matter.
The tour begins at home in
New York’s Metropolitan Museum
on Feb. 10, 12, and 13, before
traveling to California and Arizona.
In Heartbeat’s Fidelio,
Leonore is now “Leah,” a young
Black woman, and her husband
Florestan is “Stan,” a Black Lives
Matter activist who has been
wrongfully incarcerated by Pizarro,
a white supremacist prison
warden.
Leah dreams that she
becomes “Lee,” a female prison
guard, who attempts to rescue
Stan from death in prison.
Together with playwright
Marcus Scott, Heard has made
the dialogue fresh and American,
with new updates since the 2018
version, eliminated two major
roles, and altered the ending.
The opera’s most famous
moment is the Prisoners’ Chorus
in Act 1—”O welche Lust”—
when the prisoners are allowed
out into the open air for a brief
time, and they sing a gorgeous
ode to freedom, hope and the
human spirit.
Heartbeat said it invited six
prison choirs to learn a new version
Caribbean L 34 ife, February 4-10, 2022
of this hymn, and Heard
and Heartbeat co-music director
Daniel Schlosberg traveled to the
prisons to work with and record
the singers.
“All six audio recordings will
be layered and combined with
video from choir rehearsals, so
that the audience hears the voices
and sees the faces of more
than 100 incarcerated people in
Ohio, Iowa, Minnesota and Kansas,
singing together in harmony,”
Heard said.
“Schlosberg’s new orchestration—
for two French horns, two
cellos, two pianos, and percussion
— channels the emotional
core of the opera, pulling listeners
through a vast yet intimate
journey into Leah’s psyche,” she
added.
Heard said Heartbeat is
“thrilled to continue its work on
this Fidelio, updating the libretto
once more for our current
moment, deepening the company’s
commitment to anti-racism
in all that they do, collaborating
more with their prison choir
partners, sharing the production
and sparking important conversations.
“This tour is Heartbeat’s largest
and most ambitious venture
yet,” she said.
Award-winning bass-baritone
Derrell Acon is a uniquely
accomplished performer whose
repertoire ranges from the comic
to the tragic.
His accomplishments in
music have established Dr. Acon
as a leader in artistic activism
through music performance.
Recent roles include Escamillo
in Opera Ithaca’s Carmen and
Antron McCray in the Pulitzer
Prize-winning production of
The Central Park Five with Long
Beach Opera.
Acon is the vice president of
People Operations & Inclusion at
Opera Philadelphia and Associate
Artistic Director at Heartbeat
Opera in New York City.
Chronicled by Time Out
Magazine as “radiating with
slowly simmering energy” and
described as a “quiet revelation”
by the L.A. Times, Curtis Bannister
is establishing himself as
one of the most dynamic and
multi-genre performing artists
of his generation for his “magnificent
voice and singing” (Chicago
Classical Review).
The recipient of the 2021
Actors Equity Foundation Roger
Sturtevant Award for outstanding
talent in musical theater,
Bannister began the 2021/22
theater season recording with TV
star Heather Headley, for Goodman
Theater’s 2021 Gala.
Kelly Griffin demonstrates
her versatility by bringing life
to roles in both classic repertoire
and new music workshop
showcases.
VP Records
born on Feb. 1, 1957 and died
on July 1, 1999.
During his prolific career,
which began in the late
1960s, when he was just 11,
Brown recorded more than
75 albums and was one of the
major stars of lovers’ rock, a
sub-genre of reggae, according
to Wikipedia, the online
encyclopedia.
It said the legendary Jamaican
reggae super star Bob
Marley cited Brown as his
favorite singer, dubbing him
“The Crown Prince of Reggae.”
“We remember, and celebrate
the anniversary of Dennis
Emmanuel Brown’s birthday
— Feb. 1 — and highlight
his connection to another
reggae giant, producer King
Jammy,” said VP Records in a
statement on Tuesday.
“The high regard and accolades
with which we speak
about Dennis Brown have
been earned,” it added. “By
the age of 28, in 1985, Dennis
Emmanuel Brown had 22
albums and hundreds of singles
established in the reggae
canon, from ‘No Man Is An
Island’ to ‘Money In My Pocket’
to ‘Revolution’ and ‘Here
I Come.’
“’Slow Down,’ while not
often discussed as part of his
recorded legacy, was Dennis’
last full-length release of
the pre-digital era of Jamaican
music,” continued VP
Records, stating that the
album was recorded for (then)
Prince Jammy in 1984/85.
Club in Mandeville, Jamaica,
starting at 3:00 pm.
“We are particularly delighted
to have the sustained support
of our Jamaican Diaspora,
as well as the Afro-Caribbean
Diaspora in the USA, and, in
particular, the tri-state area,”
Afari said. “This support was in
sharp focus with previous staging
of both Jamaica Poetry Festival
and Poetry in Motion.
“In fact, if you look at the
range of the performers, which
we will present this year, it
shows clearly that we appeal to
an important demographic and
psychographic,” he added. “This
is pure, high quality edutainment
for social empowerment
and inspiration, especially in
these challenging times, globally
and what is happening
here in Jamaica.
“The fact that it’s the ‘GeneratioNext
— Virtual Edition,’
makes it even more appealing,
far reaching and intriguing,”
continued Afari, disclosing that
he has established a new partnership
with New York-based
Sound Chat Radio.
“We are blessed and highly
favored to have the professional
partnership, support of Sound
Chat Radio, with Irish and
Chin, as well as IMAGES LLC,
and we want to say a big thank
you to all the persons and businesses
involved in making this
possible,” Afari said.
“Big Up as well to all our
other partners, such as Jamaica
Tourist Board, Jamaica
National Group, Jamaica Public
Service, the Ministry of Culture,
Gender, Entertainment
and Sports, VW Investments
and Jamaica TvRadio, among
others,” he added. “It’s crystal
clear that unity is strength,
and team work makes the
dream work.”
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POETRY IN MOTION TO GO
VIRTUAL IN JAMAICA
Heartbeat Opera on first-ever ‘Fidelio’ tour