Opera on 3: Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking

Original version

BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

Migrated podcast image for: Radio 3 Opera Guides

Opera on 3

Music: Classical: Opera

Programme presenting rare and fascinating operatic performances

Programme presenting rare and fascinating performances and vividly communicating the immediacy of the live experience

Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking

BBC Radio 3 - Opera on 3, Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking

At the Metropolitan Opera, New York, a nun and a murderer meet on death row.

At the Metropolitan opera, New York, redemption overcomes rage when a nun and a murderer meet on death row. Starring Latonia Moore, Joyce DiDonato and Ryan McKinny.

Winning universal critical acclaim at its premiere in 2000, Dead Man Walking by the American composer Jake Heggie is the most widely performed opera of the last two decades. With a libretto by Terence McNally, it's an adaptation of the powerful memoir by Sister Helen Prejean, a Catholic nun and anti-death-penalty activist from New Orleans. The tale of rage and redemption which questions the morality of the death penalty is set to a score that has been compared to West Side Story for its immediacy and impact.

Joseph De Rocher is a convicted murderer on death row at the Louisiana State Penitentiary and Sister Helen reluctantly becomes his spiritual adviser. As their relationship develops, Sister Helen is able to bring a kind of peace to De Rocher and his family, and persuades him to acknowledge his guilt. Finally, when the time comes, she is there to support him at the hour of his death.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Met's dynamic music director, conducts a starry cast and continues to make good his pledge to refresh the repertoire and bring new audiences to the august institution. 

Recorded in New York in October and presented by Debra Lew Harder with commentator Ira Siff.

The opera contains subject matter and strong language which some listeners may find offensive or upsetting.

Jake Heggie: Dead Man Walking

Sister Rose ..... Latonia Moore (soprano)
Sister Helen Prejean ..... Joyce DiDonato (mezzo-soprano)
Joseph De Rocher ..... Ryan McKinny (bass-baritone)
Mrs Patrick De Rocher ..... Susan Graham (mezzo-soprano)
Warden Benton ..... Raymond Aceto (baritone) 
Father Grenville ..... Chad Shelton (tenor) 
Kitty Hart ..... Wendy Bryn Harmer (soprano) 
Owen Hart ..... Rod Gilfry (baritone)
Howard Boucher ..... Chauncey Packer (tenor) 
A Motor Cop ..... Justin Austin (baritone) 
Older brother ..... Mark Joseph Mitrano (tenor) 
Younger brother ..... Jonah Mussolino (treble) 
Sister Catherine ..... Magdalena Kuźma (soprano) 
Sister Lillianne ..... Briana Hunter (mezzo-soprano) 
First prison guard ..... Christopher Job (baritone) 
Second prison guard ..... John Hancock (baritone) 
First mother ..... Helena Brown (soprano) 
Mrs. Charlton ..... Alexa Jarvis (soprano)
Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra
Yannick Nézet-Séguin (conductor)

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Opera on 3

Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3