BREATHING FREE// HEARTBEAT OPERA
DIR: Anaiis Cisco - Los angeles DP Kathryn Boyd-Batstone
Heartbeat Opera’s BREATHING FREE, a visual album featuring excerpts from Beethoven’s Fidelio, Negro spirituals, and works by Harry T. Burleigh, Florence Price, Langston Hughes, Anthony Davis, and Thulani Davis.
2021 DRAMA LEAGUE AWARD NOMINEE for OUTSTANDING DIGITAL CONCERT PRODUCTION (info here)
Originally presented December 4-12, 2020, along with six live panel discussions
since streamed at The Broad Stage and Mondavi Center
Digital program and libretto here.
PRESS
“A Prisoners’ Chorus .” - The New Yorker
“Stirring.” -The Washington Post
“Grippingly produced. The harrowing climax includes footage from a performance of Beethoven’s extraordinary Prisoners Chorus sung by actual inmates at prisons across the country. ‘O Freedom,’ they sing, ‘when will you return?’ And the music holds open a space for its arrival.” -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
“Gloriously moving and exquisitely produced, Heartbeat Opera has created theater to last the ages. Justice and equality are hard to come by but “Breathing Free” allows us to wonder if it’s possible. [An] intense work of shimmering beauty.” -LA Dance Chronicle
“Magnificent and vivacious.” -Broadway World
