Heartbeat Opera Gives Us Manon
Opera Lives in New York
By: Susan Hall - Feb 02, 2026
Heartbeat Opera presents Manon
Opera Live in New York
Heartbeat Opera is offering a striking new Manon, cut and shaped into a taut hundred minutes, restoring much of the original wit and allowing it to sharpen—rather than soften—the opera’s tragic ending.
This one-act chamber adaptation features a new English translation by Jacob Ashworth and Rory Pelsue. Directed by Pelsue with meticulous attention to detail and an unerring sense of pace, and conducted by the inimitable Dan Schlosberg, the production is terrific from start to finish.
Emma Grimsley, a soprano who also has writing and directing credentials, gives us a complex and richly imagined Manon—torn between genuine love and the glittering temptations of wealth and luxury. She has a lovely voice and the courage to experiment with it, moving into a kind of helden Sprechstimme, hovering between song and speech. Her Manon is an “It-girl” cousin of Traviata, though the role is even more demanding: she sings almost continuously, navigating repeated high notes, mezzo voce, and a sung language that Grimsley daringly places at the back of the throat for a gritty, unsettling effect.
The hundred minutes fly by as chandeliers rise and fall, dividing the scenes. Every aspect of the production is carefully tended. It moves at exactly the right pace across a catwalk stage whose reflective floor makes the action shimmer and sparkle.
The runway is not just visually arresting; it is dramaturgically astute. Singers often move in straight lines, allowing us to gaze at them directly. Manon is onstage most of the time. She has no private life. In this modern operatic world, Manon becomes a kind of product, displayed and evaluated for the highest bidder.
Seen through a contemporary lens, Manon’s youth is often exaggerated—many modern productions frame her as trafficked or abused. Yet when the character was created in the eighteenth century, French women often died around the age of thirty. Manon, then, is closer to a woman in her late thirties today: someone capable of agency, calculation, and survival. This production wisely honors that complexity.
This Manon answers another critical question for opera. Can Broadway enliven traditional opera wokrs? The answer at Heartbeat isa resounding Yes.
Cast:
Emma Grimsley (Manon), Matt Dengler (Chevalier Des Grieux), Glenn Seven Allen (Guillot), Jamari Darling (Lescaut), Justin Lee Miller (Count Des Grieux), Kathryn McCreary (Pousette), Natalie Walker (Javotte)
Creative Team:
Director: Rory Pelsue
Music Director / Arranger: Dan Schlosberg
Choreographer: Sara Gettelfinger
Adaptation: New English translation by Jacob Ashworth and Rory Pelsue
Style: 100-minute, one-act chamber adaptation with an eight-piece band
Tickets here.