Heggie: Dead Man Walking

Joyce DiDonato (Sister Helen Prejean), Philip Cutlip (Joseph de Rocher), Frederica von Stade (Mrs de Rocher), Measha Brueggergosman (Sister Rose), John Packard (Owen Hart), Cheryl Parrish (Kitty Hart), Susanne Mentzer (Jade Boucher), Jon Kolbet (Howard Boucher) Houston Grand Opera & Chorus, Patrick Summers

2012 two CD release. "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' 1995 movie of the same name, 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." 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.