Heggie’s First Opera Returns to War Memorial

Jamie Barton and Ryan McKinny in the current San Francisco Opera production of Dead Man Walking

Yesterday afternoon in the War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco Opera gave the first of six performances of a revival of Jake Heggie’s first opera, Dead Man Walking. This season marks the 25th anniversary of the debut of this opera, which was performed by mezzo Susan Graham in the role of Sister Helen Prejean, baritone John Packard as convicted murderer Joseph De Rocher, and mezzo Frederica van Stade as De Rocher’s mother. These roles were sung yesterday by, respectively, Jamie Barton, Ryan McKinny, and Graham. The conductor was Patrick Summers, who had previously conducted the 2000 debut; and staging was by Director Leonard Foglia.

The narrative is based on Prejean’s book of the same title, which was published in 1993. Tim Robbins turned the book into a film (again with the same title), both writing the screenplay and directing it, which was released in 1995. Susan Sarandon was cast as Prejean with Sean Penn as De Rocher, given the name Matthew Poncelet in the film. The role of Poncelet’s mother was taken by Roberta Maxwell. The film was very successful, while the opera has received an impressive diversity of productions, culminating in opening the 2023–2024 season at the Metropolitan Opera with a live broadcast on WQXR.

While it is hard to predict the future, particularly where the performing arts are concerned, it would not surprise me if music history will view Dead Man Walking as a landmark. It is far from the first opera to draw from the historical record. However, it may be the first in which the narrative migrated from non-fiction to Hollywood before arriving at the opera house!

Focusing only on the opera, however, I would say that I was drawn more attentively to yesterday’s revival than I was to the debut. This may simply have been a matter that I had no idea what to expect in 2000. Yesterday, I took my seat (the same one I had in 2000) with a broader sense of context, not only of the narrative but also of more familiarity with Heggie’s music (having seen his subsequent productions here in San Francisco as well). There was more of a sense of flow in the character development of both Prejean and De Rocher. Neither of them would strike one as “operatic” characters; but both the music and the staging established a perspective on the narrative that transcended the film version.

On the other hand, while I have the opportunity to revisit this production five times before the end of the month, I have to confess that once is enough!