Queen Of Hearts

About

Queen of Hearts is a Valentine’s Day–themed concert-revel presented by Opera Lafayette, designed as an immersive evening of Baroque and Renaissance music celebrating love in its many forms. Led by Nic McGegan, Music Director Laureate of the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the program is curated and hosted with his trademark wit. The musical selections are framed around four facets of love—sensual, humorous, chaste, and tragic—illustrated through tender ballads, amorous duets, cheeky verses, and bawdy drinking songs drawn from the 16th and 17th centuries. Distinct from a standard concert, the event integrates food, craft cocktails, and wine as an homage to Bacchus, with signature drinks created by New York mixologist Alex Dominguez. Staged in the salon-like Georgia Room in New York City, the evening places period-instrument performance within a convivial social setting, echoing the domestic and salon contexts in which much of this repertoire first flourished.