Now one of the most performed American operas of all time, Jake Heggie’s first opera Dead Man Walking was commissioned by and premiered at San Francisco Opera in 2000. Dead Man Walking is based on a 1993 memoir of the same name by Sister Helen Prejean, which was subsequently made into an Oscar-winning movie starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn. It is a heart-wrenching story of grief, grace and redemption, recounting Sister Helen’s courageous struggle to provide spiritual guidance to a condemned Louisiana murderer in the months leading up to his execution.

Heggie has become the leading living American composer of operas, having also written The End of the Affair, Three Decembers, Moby Dick, If I Were You and It’s a Wonderful Life. Sara Jobin (most recently Evgeny Onegin, 2015) returns to conduct.

Sister Helen Prejean: Elise Quagliata

Joseph De Rocher: Tim Mix

Mrs. De Rocher: Stephanie Weiss

Sister Rose: Shawnette Sulker

Conductor: Sara Jobin