Heartbeat Opera’s adaptation of Beethoven’s “Fidelio” achieves what many well-meaning, ostensibly “woke” contemporary music ensemble efforts fail to accomplish. Artistic Director Ethan Heard’s retelling engages directly with the marginalized population it seeks to draw attention to: The “Prisoners’ Chorus” is sung by incarcerated individuals from prison choirs across the United States. Although the opera was composed two centuries ago and sung in German, Heard’s reconceptualization of the opera successfully gives voice to a handful of the 2.3 million individuals currently incarcerated in the U.S. The 2022 version, which has a COVID-friendly digital program, is accompanied by letters from the prisoners recounting the experience of singing in the choir. One of the vocalists writes, “It feels like I’m telling a part of my own story through theirs.”
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