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"Cathartic, uplifting and humanizing" wrote the Houston Grand Opera production of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking. Joyce DiDonato as Sister Helen Prejean, who becomes a counselor to murderer on death row in Louisiana, share the stage with her idol, veteran mezzo Frederica Von Stade, here making her farewell to opera.
Like Tim Robbins' Oscar-winning 1995 movie of the same name, which starred Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn, the opera draws on Sister Helen's real-life memoirs: a leading advocate for abolition of the death penalty in the USA, she acted as a counselor to a prisoner on death row in Louisiana. "However great an operatic and theatrical experience," continued the Houston Chronicle, "Dead Man Walking makes it's greatest impact as a purely human ne."
As Joyce DiDonato Atold the New York Times, "I first did Sister Helen at New York City Opera in 2002. It was extraordinary as a young Americans to be involved in something that so directly reflects things our society is going through. Dead Man Walking poses questions directly applicable to our society today... I've never felt a piece hit an audience so hard. There was electricity in the theatre."
Quite apart from the power of the opera itself, the production had a special personal significance for DiDonato. Her career was launched in the late 1990s with her three years on Houston Grand Opera's young artist program, and in this production she was sharing a stage with her idol, fellow mezzo soprano Frederica von Stade. Playing Mrs. De Rocher, the mother of the convicted murderer, Von Stade made her farewell to the operatic stage with this production.
Dead Man Walking Reviews
Dead Man Walking Reviews
 Very Different, very effective, second recording of DMW, By This review is from: Dead Man Walking (Audio CD) AFter seeing Joyce DiDonato play Sister Helen Prejean In Houston in 2011, I never dreamed that I would in the not to distant future own a souvenir of that excellent audio production. As Erato recorded the original San Francisco cast with the stellar Susan Graham leading up the cast, it never crossed my mind that a major label would be so wise to record DiDonato's version of the opera. I focus on Graham and DiDonato perhaps too much. The productions have a totally different feel to them in many ways. Both are totally effective, make a great care for opera still being a relevant art form, and both make you think about issues, but from different perspectives. Having read some of Prejean's work, I think both singers give us a piece of this phenomenal woman. Each make wise choices about what to bring out in this character that cannot be really be presented in full in a condensed work. Frankly, I was so taken with Susan Graham's portrayal, that when I read I would being seeing DiDonato (my... Read more |
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