Opera’s original it-girl wants it all…
and she’s not afraid to fight for it.
MANON!
A brand new 100-minute adaptation,
sung in English with new English Dialogues
Music by Jules Massenet
Original Libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille
Co-Adapted with new English translation by Jacob Ashworth
and Rory Pelsue
Newly Arranged by Dan Schlosberg
Directed by Rory Pelsue
Music Directed by Dan Schlosberg
January 27-February 15, 2026
The Space at Irondale
85 S Oxford Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217
Tickets on sale soon!
Do girls JUST wanna have fun?
Manon is asked to make impossible choices: Passion or power? Freedom or security? Love or luxury? Yet opera's quintessential material girl refuses to be categorized by men. She insists on being convent girl and courtesan, seductive and innocent, romantic and callous. In Heartbeat Opera's retelling of Massenet's tragicomic masterpiece, it's Manon's demi-monde, and we're all just living in it.
TEAM
Co-Adapted with new English translation by Jacob Ashworth and Rory Pelsue
Newly Arranged by Dan Schlosberg
Director // Rory Pelsue
Music Director // Dan Schlosberg
Scenic Designer // Alexander Woodward
Costume Designer // David Mitsch
Lighting Designer // Yichen Zhou
Movement Direction // Sara Gettelfinger
Dramaturg // Peregrine Teng Heard
Production Manager // Daria Walcott
Meet the Team
Rory Pelsue
Co-Adapter and Director
Rory Pelsue is an Obie-winning director of new and classic plays, operas, musicals, and live-stream performances. He is the Resident Director of Fake Friends, where he helmed The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse at the New Group, This American Wife, and Pulitzer Prize Finalist and Drama League Nominee Circle Jerk. Other recent credits include directing Burn Book at Mabou Mines, Other People’s Dead Dads at Dixon Place, Read to Me at Portland Stage, The Show on the Roof at Boise Contemporary Theater, Deathbed Edition at Ars Nova ANT Fest, and workshops and readings at Ojai Playwrights Festival, Ars Nova, Southcoast Repertory Theater, Studio Theater, Primary Stages, CultureHub, and Mercury Store. He has served as an Assistant and Associate Director at the Metropolitan Opera, the Juilliard School, Yale Repertory Theater, McCarter Theater Center, and Yale Repertory Theater. BA: Sarah Lawrence College. MFA: Yale School of Drama. rorypelsue.com
DAN SCHLOSBERG
New Arrangements & Music Director (Music Director, Heartbeat Opera)
See full bio on our staff page here.
Our season is supported by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and is supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the city council. Additional support is provided by a grant from Opera America. Heartbeat Opera is also proud to be supported by the Howard Gilman Foundation.
