'Dead Man Walking' at 25

Opera Magazine
July 2025

Countless new American operas have been shelved and all but forgotten after high-profile premieres. Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally’s ‘Dead Man Walking’, which had its first performance at San Francisco Opera on 7 October 2000 and is being revived there this month, is an exception to the rule. It is the most frequently performed opera written in the 21st century, having received more than 80 productions in places as far flung as Dresden, London, Cape Town, Sydney and Sing Sing – a maximum-security prison in Ossining, New York. What accounts for the unprecedented success of this opera based on Sister Helen Prejean’s 1993 memoir about her work as a spiritual adviser to convicted murderers on death row? We posed this question to 12 people with close ties to the opera.

“This opera resonates with audiences 25 years after it debuted because the death penalty is still in effect for so many states in the United States. And whatever your opinions on the subject matter may be, this opera will meet you where you are. It doesn't tell you what to think, but it absolutely requires you to see it from multiple points of view.”

Read the full feature at Opera Magazine!