Not long ago, I looked over the notes I had from the 2000 world premiere run of Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally's first opera together, Dead Man Walking. At the time, several years before I became a professional music writer, I didn't think all that much of it. I was therefore somewhat surprised by the opera's popularity (it has had 82 bring-ups to date, all over the United States and Europe), except for the obvious appeal of the story and the excellence of the singers who were in the premiere.
I saw the 25th anniversary production last Saturday, and boy, was I ever wrong. I did not have enough experience with new opera to adequately analyze the music and libretto. (I'm not the only one to have made this mistake; a friend said the same had been true of him back then.)
So I'll come down on the side of Joshua Kosman, whose review a couple of weeks ago mentioned that back in 2000 he'd called it a masterpiece. Dead Man Walking is a remarkable opera, for the strength and singability of the libretto, which is superbly structured, for the excellence of the text-setting, for the beautiful and imaginative orchestration. It's no wonder the opera has been produced so regularly over such a long period. It's an amazing record for a modern opera, and particularly amazing when you keep in mind that Dead Man Walking was Heggie's first opera.
The opera opens with a rape and double murder, and there is no doubt that Joe de Rocher and his brother are guilty. He's not going to be pardoned, his sentence isn't going to be commuted to life imprisonment. The opera isn't really focussed on him; the subjects are Sister Helen's journey to find true Christian forgiveness for the terrible crime he has committed and the terrible harm the crime and its aftermath have had on the families of the murdered teenagers. (Here I'll note that I am not a Christian and would feel no call to forgive a murderer for such a crime. Nonetheless, for many reasons I'm opposed to the death penalty and have been my entire adult life.)
Patrick Summers, who has lived with this opera since 2000, conducted the performance very beautifully. Jamie Barton sang with luminous beauty as Sister Helen, and acted with a kind of understated, plainspoken tartness. Brittany Renée, superb in Omar and La Bohème, was here terrific as Sister Rose, who teaches with Sister Helen. Susan Graham, who created the role of Sister Helen, has come full circle and was deeply moving as a fragile, frightened Mrs. de Roche. Ryan McKinney, one of the go-to baritones for new American opera, was an all-too-human Joe de Rocher. Rodney Gilfry was heart-rending as Owen Hart, father of one of the dead children. Caroline Corrales, Nikola Printz, and Samuel White were all excellent as the other parents of the children.
- Joshua Kosman, On a Pacific Aisle
- Lily Janiak, S.F. Chronicle
- Nicholas Jones, SFCV
- Gabe Meline, KQED
- Matthew Travisano, Parterre Box. Interesting insights into the weaknesses of the opera.
- Charlise Tiee, Opera Tattler
- Michael Strickland, S.F. Civic Center. Again, interesting insights into weaknesses
- San Francisco Opera, Dead Man Walking at 25 website: oral history and lots more about the creation of the opera.
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