The Metropolitan Opera Premieres ​“Dead Man Walking” Based on the Book by Sister Helen Prejean

On September 26, 2023, the New York Metropolitan Opera will pre­miere ​“Dead Man Walking” cre­at­ed by American com­pos­er Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally and fea­tur­ing a new stag­ing by Ivo van Hove. The opera is based on Sister Helen Prejean’s 1993 mem­oir which details her jour­ney as a pen pal and spir­i­tu­al advis­er to a death-sen­tenced pris­on­er at Louisiana’s Angola State Prison. It is the most per­formed con­tem­po­rary opera in the world. 

​“I can only think that some­how we told this human dra­ma very well,” Mr. Heggie said. ​“It is an inti­mate sto­ry with mas­sive forces at work, very American but uni­ver­sal, time­ly but time­less. The opera seems to work not only here in the US, where we have the death penal­ty, but also in abo­li­tion­ist coun­tries around the world, and that sur­prised me.” 

The Met’s pro­duc­tion begins with a short film that shows the crime and the deaths of two teenagers. In addi­tion to the main roles of Sister Helen and the pris­on­er Joseph De Rocher, the grief-strick­en par­ents of the vic­tims have promi­nent roles as sup­port­ers of the death penal­ty. Other char­ac­ters include Mr. De Rocher’s moth­er, who pleads for her son’s life before the parole board. The opera ends with a dra­mat­ic por­tray­al of the prisoner’s exe­cu­tion by lethal injec­tion. 

​“Dead Man Walking” is direct­ed by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the cast includes mez­zo-sopra­no Joyce DiDonato star­ring as Sister Helen, bass-bari­tone Ryan McKinny as the death-sen­tenced pris­on­er Joseph De Rocher, sopra­no Latonia Moore as Sister Rose, and mez­zo-sopra­no Susan Graham as De Rocher’s mother.