Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – More than two decades onwards, Heggie and McNally’s DEAD MAN WALKING arrives at the Met in a new, clear-eyed staging

• By drediman
• October 19, 2023
• No Comments

This week, I was also able to catch up with the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Dead Man Walking, American composer Jake Heggie and the late playwright Terrence McNally’s opera adaptation of the memoir by Sister Helen Prejean (which was also adapted into an acclaimed film in 1995). Although the opera premiered well over two decades ago and has since become one of the most widely produced contemporary operas, it is only now making its Met debut — likely spurred by the company’s pronounced push to present more new work — in a new staging by auteur director Ivo van Hove. In summary, the opera depicts Prejean’s profoundly moving battle to redeem the soul of Joseph De Rocher, a convict on death row. 

Heggie’s score is accomplished, organically building a musical tapestry from a set of carefully wrought leitmotifs. Even if some musical passages are more memorable than others, the composition invariably serves the opera’s characters and their motivations. McNally’s libretto is also well constructed, capitalizing on the  characters’ operatically-scaled emotions and dilemmas and succinctly laying out the story’s plot points. My only minor gripe is that I wish there were more scenes between Prejean and De Rocher to more fully develop their relationship. The new production by van Hove is an ideal vehicle for the material. Stark and clear-eyed, the scalpel-like staging — which puts video projections to excellent use — places the characters’ extreme emotional and spiritual turmoil front and center (calling to mind Poulenc’s devastating Dialogues des Carmélites).

The music-making was also fine. In the pit, Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin led a mostly vivid account of Heggie’s score (there were a few uncharacteristically murky moments in the maestro’s reading). As Prejean, the great American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato — in robust voice — was simply magnificent, emotionally present as she carried the show squarely on her shoulders (Prejean is rarely offstage). In the role of the condemned inmate De Rocher, bass-baritone Ryan McKinny gave a tortured performance that charted the character’s spiritual journey with great nuance. Also affecting as De Rocher’s mother and Sister Rose, respectively, were beloved mezzo-soprano Susan Graham (who originated the role of Prejean when the opera was unveiled in 2000) and charismatic soprano Latonia Moore.

RECOMMENDED

DEAD MAN WALKING
Opera
The Metropolitan Opera
3 hours (with one intermission)
Through October 21