New York, NY (October 9, 2023) —The Metropolitan Opera opens its 2023–24 Live in HD season with Jake Heggie’s masterpiece Dead Man Walking on Saturday, October 21, at 12:55PM ET—the first of three works from recent years to be presented live in cinemas this season. Based on Sister Helen Prejean’s memoir, which also inspired the 1995 Oscar-winning film, the story follows Sister Helen’s fight for the soul of a condemned murderer on death row. With a libretto by the late Tony and Emmy Award winner Terrence McNally, Dead Man Walking is the most widely performed new opera of the last two decades.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Met’s Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director, leads the star-studded cast, including Grammy Award–winning mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato as Sister Helen; bass-baritone Ryan McKinny as death-row inmate Joseph De Rocher; soprano Latonia Moore as Sister Rose; and mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, who originated the role of Sister Helen in the opera’s 2000 premiere, as De Rocher’s mother.
Joyce DiDonato as Sister Helen Prejean in a scene from Act I of Jake Heggie’s “Dead Man Walking” (Photo by Karen Almond/Met Opera)
Directed by Tony Award–winning director Ivo van Hove, Dead Man Walking’s creative team also includes set and lighting designer Jan Versweyveld, costume designer An D’Huys, projection designer Christopher Ash, and sound designer Tom Gibbons in his Met debut.
Gary Halvorson will direct the Live in HD presentation for cinemas, with Grammy Award–winning musician, MacArthur recipient, and Pulitzer Prize winner Rhiannon Giddens serving as host. She will provide exclusive behind-the-scenes access and lead interviews with the cast and creative team during intermission.
The transmission will also include an intermission feature filmed at Sing Sing Correctional Facility. Led by Sister Helen and DiDonato and in association with Carnegie Hall’s Musical Connections program, members of the opera’s cast and music staff, together with some of the resident men at Sing Sing, rehearsed and presented an abridged concert version of “Dead Man Walking” at the correctional facility.
Ryan McKinny as Joseph De Rocher in Jake Heggie’s “Dead Man Walking” (Photo by Karen Almond/Met Opera)
The Stars of Dead Man Walking
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor; Montreal, Canada
Joyce DiDonato, Sister Helen Prejean; Kansas City, Kansas
Ryan McKinny, Joseph De Rocher; Los Angeles, California
Latonia Moore, Sister Rose; Houston, Texas
Susan Graham, Mrs. Patrick De Rocher; Roswell, New Mexico
Press Quotes
“WILD APPLAUSE AND STANDING OVATIONS… Dead Man Walking makes its arresting Met debut … The finest and most engaged work I’ve ever seen or heard from Joyce DiDonato … Ryan McKinny sang the role of De Rocher with figurative and literal muscular force … Revelatory singing … Commandingly conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin.” —The Washington Post
“Death-row drama brings audience to tears … DiDonato is lustrous … Susan Graham is deeply moving. The orchestra’s playing is flowing and passionate. ****” —Financial Times
“A brilliant premiere … With its emotional depth and powerful storytelling, the haunting new production left the audience spellbound.” —Vogue
“Soaring music … powerful feelings … A smartly airy production at the Met by Ivo van Hove … Charismatic stars in DiDonato and McKinny, and lavish playing from the orchestra … Affecting.” —The New York Times
“Jake Heggie’s score triumphed … Nézet-Séguin conducted with characteristic fervor … strong vocal writing, a balanced and well-paced story and a timely set of ethical questions.” —Observer
“A cutting edge and visceral production” —NY1
“A deeply human story about truth, forgiveness and the possibility of redemption … I found myself overcome by the universal redemptive hope at the core of the opera.” —America Magazine
“New work is the future of opera. The Met is going all in.” —The Wall Street Journal
For further details on Dead Man Walking, please click here.
The 2023–24 Live in HD season continues with X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X (November 18), Florencia en el Amazonas (December 9), Nabucco (January 6), Carmen (January 27), La Forza del Destino (March 9), Roméo et Juliette (March 23), La Rondine (April 20), and Madama Butterfly (May 11). All performances will be Saturday matinees transmitted live from the Met stage. An encore screening of Mozart’s The Magic Flute from 2006 will also be presented in select venues on December 2, with dates varying internationally.
