

But its collaborative spirit is fully realized in its annual Halloween Drag Extravaganzas, of which Dragus Maximus is the fifth. The company is known for its timely adaptations of classics and forward-thinking rearrangements, thanks to the musical direction of Dan Schlosberg and Jacob Ashworth.

It’s not unusual for Heartbeat Opera to infuse a deeper message in its visually and musically stunning operas. Subscribe to Observer’s Arts Newsletter Heartbeat Opera’s All the World’s a Drag. Under the command of Aphrodite, who’s voiced live by Peregrine Heard and performed by Wo Chan (the drag superstar known as Pearl Harbor) Homer listens to the mythic women when they sing of love, loss and betrayal, and he believes them. The play centers around Homer, played by Drae Campbell, whose quest for love in 2018 takes him on an odyssey through ancient myth.

The genus Hippeastrum has yielded several substances with medically useful properties, one of which has shown promise as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease.Medusa, played by Soprano Jamilyn Manning-White, is just one of the mythical women that get to tell their side of the story in Dragus Maximus.Amaryllis make dramatic and long-lasting cut flowers.

