Jake Heggie - Dead Man Walking - Susan Graham, John Packard(Live recording of 2000 world premiere production)
2CDs - DDD - 78'06, 67'57
Erato 2002
Performer: Jim Croom, Virginia Ruth, Susan Graham, Theresa Hamm-Smith, Eli Borggraefe, David Tenenbaum, Catherine Cook, Nicolle Foland, Robert Orth, John Packard, Frederica Von Stade, Mario Sawaya, Jay Hunter Morris, John Ames, Philip Horst, David Okerlund, Sally Mouzon, Rachel Perry, Richard Walker, David Harper, Gary Rideout, David Kekuewa, Frederick Winthrop, Frederick Matthews, Jeremy Singletary, Donita Volkwijn, Sean San Jose, Dawn Walters
Conductor: Patrick Summers
Orchestra/Ensemble: San Francisco Girls Chorus, San Francisco Opera Orchestra, San Francisco Boys Chorus, San Francisco Opera Chorus, Golden Gate Boys' Chorus
Venue: Live War Memorial Hall, San Fransisco, CA
In an age of "reality" television spectacles, an accompanying spate of reality-based operas can only be expected. Now comes a true-story-turned-bestselling-book-turned-major-motion-picture-turned-opera based on Sister Helen Prejean's experiences with a prisoner on death row at Angola State Prison in Louisiana, composed by Jake Heggie with a libretto written by theater veteran Terrence McNally. With this sort of excursion, it's easy for the dubious to raise many red flags. Would such a hot-button topic as capital punishment translate well to the parameters of the operatic stage, or would the audience be in for a long evening of platitudes and political diatribes? Would the opera's twin stories--tracing a nun's spiritual journey and the destroyed lives of the murdered victims' and killer's families--be compelling without resorting to false, sticky sentimentalism? And (perhaps most pressingly here) does such a story line translate into good music?
The short answer to all these questions is yes, judging on the basis of this live recording, made at the work's world-premiere production at the San Francisco Opera. The recording features a phenomenal cast, with Susan Graham singing Sister Helen Prejean, John Packard as the death-row prisoner, convicted murderer Joseph De Rocher, and Frederica von Stade as Joseph's mother. Although Heggie doesn't break any new ground in his first opera, he and McNally have created an enormously effective piece of theater that's punctuated by some truly lovely music --Anastasia Tsioulcas, ClassicsToday.com
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