Dan Schlosberg remembers the day 11 years ago when his upstart opera company put on its first performance โ in a yoga studio before an audience of 30 people.
โWe did Kurt Weillโs The Seven Deadly Sins accompanied by an upright piano that we got for free on Craigslist and a violin,โ said Schlosberg, Heartbeat Operaโs musical director and one of its founders.
Its name came โfrom the idea that singers would be feet away from youโ, Schlosberg said. โAnd so you would be experiencing their voices at armโs length and that would make a resonance in your heart.โ
Today, when many opera companies are struggling financially, Heartbeat appears to be thriving, with an annual budget that just passed US$1 million.
But true to its initial vision, the company still performs in small venues, most with a seating capacity of about 200.
โVery few small companies take up the ambition to do the fullness of opera on a small scale,โ said Jacob Ashworth, another founding member and Heartbeatโs artistic director. โWe donโt do small opera. We do big opera in a small space.โ