The Executioner's Song

THE SAN FRANCISCO OPERA BREATHES NEW LIFE INTO DEAD MAN WALKING

We've all heard of the singing nun, but how about the singing death-mw inmate? The San Francisco Opera presents both this month in Dead Man Walking, the first opera by 38-year-old composer Jake Heggie, with a libretto by playwright Terrence McNally. Following Andre Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire, Dead Man Walking, based on Sister Helen Prejean's best-selling book, is the second major American drama the company has commissioned in three years, a rather remarkable achievement. "We're usually the Dead Composers' Society," says mezzosoprano Susan Graham, who bowled over music fans singing Octavian in the Met's Der Rosenkavalier last year and is playing Sister Helen, the role for which Susan Sarandon won an Oscar in the 1995 film. "Not often are we presented with the opportunity to perform operas written by a young composer like Jake." Graham was an obvious choice for the role of Sister Helen, but casting the killer was trickier. "We auditioned 40 or 50 baritones," Heggie explains, "but the minute John Packard walked in, everybody just gasped." Heggie let his longtime friend and songwriting collaborator Frederica von Stade pick her part— "I said, 'Look, you don't have a choice. You're in this opera'"—and the great mezzo-soprano opted to play the killer's mother. "There's an important story here," says Heggie. "A very American story, but it's also universal. It's timeless."

MICHAEL HOGAN

FOR DETAILS, SEE CREDITS PAGE