NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Sister Helen Prejean remembered when she first spoke with Jake Heggie about adapting her book 鈥淒ead Man Walking.鈥�
鈥淚 don鈥檛 know boo-scat about opera,鈥� she told him. 鈥淚 just got two requests. One, you鈥檙e not going to do that atonal thing, are you? Are we going to be able to hum a tune when we come out? And the other thing, I just want to hear from you is it got the theme of journey of redemption.鈥�
The most-performed 21st century opera reaches the Metropolitan Opera for the season鈥檚 opening night Tuesday in a production by and winner Ivo van Hove starring mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato as Sister Helen.
鈥淎ll of a sudden the piece has more resonance than ever,鈥� Heggie said. 鈥淎nd that鈥檚 here as well as internationally, because it鈥檚 still a debate among a lot of people. It鈥檚 established in a lot of these abolitionist countries that there is no death penalty 鈥� the government, we don鈥檛 kill people for their crimes. And yet there are a lot of people who still wish that they would.鈥�
Prejean was a nun at New Orleans鈥� Sisters of Saint Joseph of Medaille when she became spiritual adviser to a pair of men on death row in 1984.
鈥淭he book was just a blooming miracle,鈥� the 84-year-old Prejean recalled, crediting her editor Jason Epstein for forcing her to add focus on the victims and their families.
Published in 1993, 鈥淒ead Man Walking鈥� has sold nearly 800,000 copies, according to Knopf Doubleday. Tim Robbins adapted it into a 1995 movie that earned Susan Sarandon the Academy Award for best actress for her portrayal of Prejean.
Now 62, Heggie studied piano and composition at UCLA, receiving a bachelor鈥檚 degree in 1984. He gave up playing after he was diagnosed with focal dystonia, a muscular condition that affected his right hand. He took public relations jobs with the UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance, Cal Performances and the San Francisco Opera, and spent five years retraining his hand to play piano. He was writing art songs on his own time and showed his work to mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade.
San Francisco Opera general director Lotfi Mansouri asked Heggie whether he had considered writing an opera and sent him to New York to meet with . While Mansouri suggested an adaptation of the French film 鈥淟es Belles de Nuit (Ladies of the Night),鈥� McNally about a year later proposed 鈥淒ead Man Walking.鈥�
鈥淪ondheim actually said to me: 50% of the success of any project is the idea of a story. It鈥檚 finding the story that鈥檚 going to set you on fire,鈥� Heggie said, recounting composer Stephen Sondheim's advice.
Robbins combined the two inmates into one and altered the execution from the electric chair to lethal injection, and Heggie and McNally followed that approach. Their work premiered at San Francisco鈥檚 War Memorial Opera House on Oct. 7, 2000, with Joe Mantello directing Susan Graham as Sister Helen and von Stade as the convict鈥檚 mother. After the prologue depicting the murders, the opera opens with a recurring hymn: 鈥淗e will gather us around.鈥�
wrote the score was 鈥渕arked by gorgeous flights of lyrical breadth, punchy rhythmic byplay and orchestration鈥� but added 鈥渋t is certain to dismay the apostles of novelty and progress, those for whom art must be either wholly new or worthless.鈥�
DiDonato first sang as Sister Helen in a 2002 New York City Opera production, then reprised the role at and Madrid in 2018. Heggie knew DiDonato from her time at San Francisco鈥檚 Merola program for young artists and recommended her to City Opera. Since then, she has gone on to Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York, and the Illinois Youth Center in Chicago for music classes, deepening her appreciation of Prejean鈥檚 message.
鈥淚鈥檝e had so much life experience since then and in particular going into prisons and doing work in prisons and meeting men who all have been convicted of murder, who are guilty of murder, and interacting with them and learning more about the justice system.鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd having lived the last two decades of this world that has gotten a little bit further and further away from the idea of love, universal love.鈥�
Von Hove heightens the drama with video closeups and a minimalist Jan Versweyveld set eliminates cellblock bars. Heggie estimates this is roughly the 75th international production of 鈥淒ead Man,鈥� a pandemic-delayed staging .
Graham sings de Rocher鈥檚 mother, connecting this cast to the original. A Times Square simulcast was planned for Tuesday and the Oct. 21 matinee will be televised to movie theaters around the world. The Met and Carnegie Hall plan to present excerpts at Sing Sing on Sept. 28 with DiDonato, Sister Helen as the narrator and inmates as the chorus.
There have been 1,575 executions in the U.S. since the Supreme Court allowed the death penalty to be reinstated in 1976, according to the Twenty-four states have death penalty laws, 23 do not and three have governor-imposed moratoriums, the center said.
鈥淚 have accompanied six human beings to execution, I鈥檝e been with them and they鈥檙e suffering in the last hours, counting last hours," Prejean said. "I have seen the suffering and it鈥檚 hidden from the public. It鈥檚 almost a secret ritual. Every time I see it portrayed, that I know the movie is being shown or the opera, I feel joy at that, that I know that people are being brought close to one of the deepest human rights issues of our day, the inalienable right to life of human beings.鈥�
Ronald Blum, The Associated Press
