Every day is opening night.

Press Contacts:
DKC/O&M
Rick Miramontez / Pete Sanders / Morgan Zysman
rick@omdkc.com / pete@omdkc.com / morgan@omdkc.com
212 695 7400

The McKittrick Hotel
Stephanie Geyer
sgeyer@mckittrickhotel.com / press@sleepnomorenyc.com
212 904 1880

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE

THE MCKITTRICK HOTEL, HOME OF SLEEP NO MORE, ANNOUNCES
HEARTBEAT OPERA’S
Q U A N D O
WHEN THE PERFORMANCE GETS TOO REAL
CO-PRODUCED WITH LONG BEACH OPERA

TO PLAY EXTREMELY LIMITED PREMIERE ENGAGEMENT APRIL 7-9

New York, NY (March 9, 2022) – The McKittrick Hotel (530 West 27^th Street, NYC), home of Sleep No More, announced today that the New York premiere of Heartbeat Opera’s QUANDO, a short film and live performance mashup, will play a strictly limited engagement starting on April 7. Just five performances will be offered in The Club Car through April 9.

Presented by The McKittrick Hotel, Heartbeat Opera’s QUANDO is co-produced with Long Beach Opera, Directed & Edited by Tee Vaden, and Produced & Conceptualized by Associate Artistic Director, Derrell Acon, with Photography Direction by Kathryn Boyd-Batstone and Production Design by Yuki Izumihara.

The film stars Lauren Michelle, Brian Vu, and Shelley Washington, and the live event features Mx. Oww and Jessie Cox. Musical Director Daniel Schlosberg arranged the film score for a mix of instruments and electronics.

During the 75-minute presentation, audiences will be challenged to re-examine their perceptions of art and its role in societal transformation. Some of the most beautiful and famous music from the operatic canon becomes the landscape for this fierce social satire of sex, activism, and the performance of everyday life.

Music from Giuseppe Verdi’s operas La Traviata and Don Carlo and Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice are repurposed and refashioned into a 25-minute short film that follows a starry-eyed young couple as their night on the town unravels into a surrealist swirl of decadence, intrigue, and ultimately, vengeful justice.

“This film challenges issues of representation, inequity, and self-serving actions that plague so many industries and movements, not by simply calling out the problem but by showing what is possible, while asking viewers to interrogate themselves and their motivations, which is one of my favorite sorts of call to action,” said Director & Editor, Tee Vaden.

While watching the film, live composer-performers will further challenge the audience by disrupting and reconstituting the music from the score for a one-of-a-kind theatrical experience. No two performances and endings are alike.

“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.”
–The New York Times

“Pioneers…reformatting the opera experience from
the grand to the deliberately intimate. Ingenious.
[A] radical transformational approach to the standard repertoire.”
–The Wall Street Journal

Performance schedule is Thursday 4/7 at 7:30PM, and Friday 4/8 and Saturday 4/9 at 5PM & 7:30PM. Tickets are $40 for General Admission.

The McKittrick Hotel is committed to providing healthy and safe facilities both for guests and for the members of our shows. Guests attending QUANDO will be required to show proof of full vaccination upon arrival.

Guests are welcome to dine at the hotel’s rooftop bar and restaurant, Gallow Green, before or after the performance. Visit www.mckittrickhotel.com/gallow-green for menus, reservations, or to customize a private gathering.

Sleep No More and Speakeasy Magick are also currently running at the hotel. For tickets and information, visit www.mckittrickhotel.com.

LINKS

Tickets: https://mckittrickhotel.com/the-club-car/quando
Images: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/kdyvpqyd2hnux5e/AADalq1xzEmEfeWAl6sn75v9a?dl=0

BIOGRAPHIES

ETHAN HEARD (he/him) is a director, producer, and teacher who makes theater to build community and foster love. He is Co-Founder & Artistic Director of the “daring and imaginative” Heartbeat Opera, “an enterprise that, while small and still young, has already contributed more to opera’s vitality than most major American companies” (The New York Times). He teaches acting and directing at Yale School of Drama and Yale Institute of Sacred Music. For additional information, visit ethanheard.com.

TEE VADEN Curious, sincere, & immersive storytelling is Tee Vaden’s (they/them) passion. Currently based between LA and NYC, Tee has directed work featured on Refinery 29, The Colbert Show, Rolling Stone, NME, OUT, and more. Their directing client list includes Schwarzkopf/Got2Be, Fountain of Truth, Lifetime, NYLON, Milky Mag, Google, Producer Entertainment Group & OutTV, and most recently Heartbeat Opera/Long Beach Opera. Dedicated to continuing to bring light and connection to the world with their work, they believe in the metamorphic power of joy, and are invested in highlighting the revolutionary nature of healing characters (and ourselves) outside of trauma, and rather with care.

DERRELL ACON Award-winning bass-baritone Derrell Acon (he/him) 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. He is the Vice President of People Operations & Inclusion at Opera Philadelphia and Associate Artistic Director at Heartbeat Opera in New York City. For additional information, visit derrellacon.com.

DANIEL SCHLOSBERG The music of Brooklyn-based composer-pianist Daniel Schlosberg (he/him) has been performed by the Dover Quartet, Minnesota Orchestra, Nashville Symphony, Albany Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Lorelei Ensemble, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Amphion Quartet, Antico Moderno, New Morse Code, and counter)induction, at venues including Carnegie Hall, National Sawdust, (le) poisson rouge, Royal Albert Hall, Detroit Institute of Arts, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Beijing Modern Music Festival, and David Lynch’s Festival of Disruption. Daniel is a 2014 recipient of the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and has been awarded two ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, most recently in 2014. His work has been described as “richly detailed yet delicate” by The New York Times and “witty” and “ingenious” by the Wall Street Journal. For additional information, visit danschlosberg.com.

ABOUT HEARTBEAT OPERA

Heartbeat Opera was founded by Ethan Heard (Co-Founder & Artistic Director) and Louisa Proske (Co-Founder & Resident Director) after they graduated from Yale School of Drama’s directing program in 2014.

Named “One of the most unique and cutting edge troupes in the industry” by the Observer, Heartbeat Opera creates incisive adaptations and revelatory arrangements of classics, reimagining them through new, interdisciplinary collaborations that expand the boundaries of what opera can be.

In its first seven seasons, Heartbeat has presented twelve fully-realized, equitable and inclusive productions, often featuring new chamber arrangements and English translations. Heartbeat adaptations, which can be seen as world premieres of classics, speak to the moment, here and now.

For additional information, visit www.heartbeatopera.org.

ABOUT LONG BEACH OPERA

Founded in 1979, the Long Beach Opera is the oldest operatic producing company in the metropolitan Los Angeles/Orange County region. With a repertory of over 100 operas, including early and late Baroque works, twentieth century works, and operas of special interest from the standard repertory, Long Beach Opera is well known for its world, American and west coast premieres of new and rare operas.

With a mission to engage people through provocative meaningful experiences that challenge, connect and inspire, Long Beach Opera is a recognized member of the American operatic community, enjoying funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council, the County of Los Angeles, and the City of Long Beach.

For additional information, visit www.longbeachopera.org.

ABOUT THE MCKITTRICK HOTEL

The McKittrick Hotel (@TheMcKittrick) is home of immersive theater spectacle Sleep No More (@sleepnomorenyc), dazzling Speakeasy Magick, and intimate live events in Manderley Bar and The Club Car. Guests are also welcome to the hotel’s rooftop garden bar and restaurant, Gallow Green (@gallowgreen).

The McKittrick Hotel provides a unique location for celebrations and private gatherings of all sizes. The legendary venue is also renowned for presenting one-of-a-kind live concerts, intimate music festivals, and spectacular soirées for Halloween and New Year’s Eve.

Located in close proximity to Hudson Yards, Little Island, The High Line, West Chelsea art galleries, and The Meatpacking District, The McKittrick is a not-to-be-missed destination for locals and visitors alike.

For additional information, visit www.mckittrickhotel.com.

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