ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: HEARTBEAT OPERA
"A categorically imaginative company" - The New Yorker
In the summer of 2022, Jacob stepped into the role of Artistic Director for the “categorically imaginative and radical” (New Yorker) Heartbeat Opera, after eight seasons as Co-Music Director. After his first season at the helm, The New York Times declared that Heartbeat “hasn’t skipped a beat,” and continues to push the boundaries, “demonstrating the strengths that make it so vital to New York’s opera scene.”
Heartbeat Opera creates incisive adaptations and revelatory arrangements of classics, reimagining them for the here and now. Our new interdisciplinary collaborations expand the boundaries of what opera can be. Grounded in the belief that excellent opera-making should build community and radiate beauty, we work toward an equitable and inclusive future for our art form, centered in love.
Dubbed "singularly unconventional" by Opera News, “a radical endeavor” by Alex Ross in The New Yorker, and “pioneers” by The Wall Street Journal, Heartbeat Opera is “an enterprise that, while small and still young, has already contributed more to opera’s vitality than most major American companies” (New York Times).
As Artistic Director, Jacob collaborates with guest directors to co-adapt each radical new adaptation. Heartbeat’s adaptations, which can be seen as world premieres of classics, speak to the moment, here and now. Fidelio featured a primarily-Black cast and more than 100 incarcerated singers from six prison choirs. Butterfly retold the iconic story through the eyes of a half-Asian boy. Carmen was set on the U.S./Mexico border and featured accordion, electric guitar, and saxophone. In Tosca, a mostly Middle-Eastern cast braved the authoritarian censorship of an unnamed religious regime to tell their story. Heartbeat has shared its work at the Kennedy Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Broad Stage, The Mondavi Center, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, and Chamber Music North West. It staged the first ever opera performance on The High Line and has mounted its immensely popular, interdisciplinary Halloween Drag Extravaganza each year at iconic venues such as National Sawdust and Roulette.
Heartbeat has been hailed across the national and international press, including in five features in The New York Times, in stories on CNN and the BBC, and in an ALL ARTS/WNET documentary: “Bracing—icy vodka shots of opera instead of ladles of cream sauce” (New York Times), “elegant and boisterous” (New Yorker), “fascinating and gorgeous” (Observer), “ingenious” (Wall Street Journal), “gripping and entertaining” (Opernwelt), “a flatout triumph” (Opera News).