Photo: Derrell Acon, bass-baritone; Anaiis Cisco, filmmaker; Kathryn Boyd Batstone, Director of Photography (Los Angeles); Celine Layous 1st AC/Gaffer (Los Angeles)
Wednesday, February 10 at 7pm PT
Saturday, February 13 at 7pm PT
Featuring 9 interconnected music videos with music from
Beethoven's Fidelio, Negro spirituals and works by Harry T. Burleigh, Florence Price, Langston Hughes, Anthony Davis and Thulani Davis.
Each screening will be followed by a live panel discussion with artists and advocates highlighting themes surfaced in Breathing Free relating to incarcerated populations.
Tickets and info at thebroadstage.org/breathingfree
Heartbeat Opera, the radical indie opera company “leading the charge in online opera” (Parterre) with “groundbreaking” virtual content (Operawire) that is “hacking the corporate contours of Zoom into a postmodern proscenium” (Washington Post)—announces the West Coast Premiere of Breathing Free, an ambitious filmed song cycle dedicated to the celebration of Black artistic voices.
Breathing Free builds on Heartbeat's 2018 collaboration with
100 incarcerated singers in six prison choirs, part of a contemporary
Fidelio told through the lens of Black Lives Matter—a production that
left Alex Ross of The New Yorker “blindsided by its impact.”
Created in a time of George Floyd’s murder, a pandemic which is ravaging
our prison population, and the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s
birth—Heartbeat has curated a song cycle brought to life in vivid music
videos, mingling excerpts from Fidelio with songs by Black composers and
lyricists, which together manifest a dream of justice and equity.
This 45-minute “visual album” features three singers, three dancers,
eight instrumentalists and a robust creative production team. Rehearsed
remotely on Zoom, the cast has recorded their individual audio tracks at
home, with the music team then layering the tracks together.
Heartbeat’s filmmaker Anaiis Cisco collaborates with cinematographers to
film the performers in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
The presentation will be livestreamed along with live opening remarks
and post-screening panel discussions with artists and activists
highlighting the timely themes surfaced in Breathing Free.
Audience Q&A will follow the panels. Participants for each panel are
TBD. The Broad Stage provided additional support for the creation of
this work.
CREATIVE TEAM
Director: Ethan Heard
Filmmaker: Anaiis Cisco
Creative producer: Ras Dia
Co-Music Director and Arranger (Fidelio): Daniel Schlosberg
Co-Music Director: Jacob Ashworth
Movement Director: Emma Jaster
Director of Photography: Kathryn Boyd Batstone (Los Angeles)
1st AC/Gaffer: Celine Layous (Los Angeles)
Director of Photography: Jacob Mallin (New York & Chicago)
1st AC/Gaffer: Matt Iacono (New York & Chicago)
Associate Movement Director: Tamrin Goldberg
Arranger (Malcolm X, Balm in Gilead) & Associate Music Director: Sean Mayes
Stage Manager: Jessica Emmanus
Assistant Director: Mar Cox
Sound Editor: Gleb Kanasevich
Sound Mixer: Sam Torres
Music Assistant, Orchestra Manager & Copyist: Mona Seyed-Bolorforosh
CAST
Derrell Acon, bass-baritone
Curtis Bannister, tenor
Kelly Griffin, soprano
Randy Castillo, Tamrin Goldberg, Brian HallowDreamz Henry, dancers
Also featuring the voices of more than 100 incarcerated singers and 70 volunteers
from six prison choirs: Oakdale Community Choir, KUJI Men’s Chorus, UBUNTU Men’s Chorus,
HOPE Thru Harmony Women’s Choir, East Hill Singers and Voices of Hope
BAND
Jacob Ashworth, violin
Marika Hughes, cello
Miki Sasaki, trumpets
Kyra Sims, horn
Thomas Flippin, guitars
Britton-René Collins, percussion
Daniel Schlosberg, piano
Jason Thomas, piano
Prisoners Chorus features: Laura Weiner (horn), Nicolee Kuester (horn), Clare Monfredo (cello),
Daniel Hass (cello), Euntaek Kim (piano) and Ben Cornavaca (percussion)
More Information:
Tickets are “Pay What You Wish” starting at $10 and can be purchased at thebroadstage.org.
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