 | |
List Price: $33.98 | | Label: Erato
Salesrank: 135947
Released: January 8, 2002 |
| Our Price: $21.99 |
| Used Price: $12.90 |
|
| Media: Audio CD |
|
Editorial Review:
Dead Man Walking opens with a brutal rape-murder scene and ends with a passage, silent except for the clicks of the machine delivering fluids that execute a condemned man, followed by Susan Graham intoning the spiritual "He will gather us around." Those searing scenes flank that rarity, a contemporary opera that deals with an important issue--the death penalty--with balance and empathy while sustaining dramatic tension, the narrative conveyed with musical alertness. Small wonder that the opera has been so successful. It's based on the book by Sister Helen Prejean and the acclaimed Tim Robbins film made from it about a nun who befriends a condemned man and brings him to face the redemptive truth of his actions. The recording was made during the San Francisco premiere of the opera and has all the intensity of a live performance, in addition to the overwhelming power of the story and the music.
It would be hard to imagine a better performance, too. Susan Graham is perfect as Sister Helen, singing with purity of tone and fiery passion. She's delightful, too, in the humorous bits that leaven what would otherwise be a story too harrowing for the medium. Frederica von Stade, as the murderer's mother, is as good, and baritone John Packard as the condemned man is a real find--a singing actor totally convincing throughout, both as the hardened killer and later as the repentant man finally accepting responsibility for his deeds. The supporting cast is also first-rate, and Patrick Summers conducts with unerring sweep and fervor. Jake Heggie's score may lack hummable arias (other than the traditional hymn that plays so important a part throughout), but the orchestration is fresh, the vocal lines are grateful, and the range is wide, moving seamlessly from modern romanticism to bits of pop and rock. No small part of the opera's success is due to Terrence McNally's dramatically cohesive libretto. A triumph for all concerned. --Dan Davis
Dead Man Walking (Live recording of 2000 world premiere production) Reviews:
Isa Lei 
2006-12-25 - The merging of the Fijian song Isa Lei into a deeply moving piece of sub-continental music is brilliant. Worth the whole CD
Weak attempt at opera realism 
2004-09-01 - The idea of making this story into an opera is a great idea, and I was so excited to see it, but the music is way too tonal and lyrical for a story like this. The whole opera sounds very amateurish. Heggie's sense of orchestration and musical language is very bland and unimaginitive in my opinion. And a good chunk of the opera consists of about four or five themes that keep reappearing throughout the opera almost always in the same form. There is no intellectual system of Wagnerian leitmotif here, it is simply direct repetition of material throughout the opera. This is not a story of heros and heriones with an epic romantic plot. This is a very dark and gritty look at the death penalty, and I'm amazed that reviewers complained that this opera is too atonal and 20th century for their tastes. In my opinion this opera does not nearly have enough atonality and emotional depth to it. Dark stories should use dark music. Just look at operas like Peter Grimes, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Wozzeck, and Lulu. In all of these operas the purpose of the music is to elevate the drama in this dark stories to a level that could not be achieved by simple spoken word. To me Heggie undercuts the drama by reverting to lyrical numbers at very dramatic points in the opera. It doesn't help that the stage direction was pitiful in the version I saw (stage symmetry is the last thing you would want in a 20th century realism opera). It seems that I am alone here in my argument. But anybody who knows anything about 20th century opera realism (Puccini does not count) will probably agree that Heggie completely missed a good opportunity to make a scoarching opera.
Challenging in many dimensions 
2004-06-09 - I think that this opera (or it's subject more generally) gets to the heart of the entire debate about capital punishment - if we could devise a test that was perfect in its ability to distinguish the guilty from the innocent, would we still be willing to execute people for horrendous crimes. Having just seen this opera in a performance in Pittsburgh, I'm not sure. One of the amazing things about this opera is the extent to which it presents the conflicts associated with the death penalty without manipulating the observer. Is this despicable person really worth anyone's time? Is there some sense in which his death is warranted as retribution for his crimes? Would his death provide any sort of compensation to the surviving victims of his crimes? I honestly have no idea. But an extraordinary feature of this opera is the way in which it introduces these issues without biasing the viewer. During the after-show dinner, my wife and I discussed these issues a number of times. Any work that induces that type of reflection about the deeper underlying issues is worthwhile from my point of view.
In terms of the music, I suppose that there are moments of power and beauty. We're talking about a modern opera, so there aren't many hummable songs (see Broadway if you want those.) I suspect that the entire endeavor is more effective in person.
The Opera is Fabulous.
2003-06-20 - I recently saw the Opera in Detroit, Michigan. It was a wonderful experience (but isn't going to the opera always a wonderful experience?). I thought it was well done-- the music was a tad too 20-th Century for my tastes, but I still loved it!
It Could Have Been More 
2002-06-26 - This opera has it's moments and they are glorious moments. The story is powerful and the central idea is important. Jake Heggie is a wonderfully lyrical composer. He really knows how to show off the voice and has an innate sense of drama. He also proves a brilliant orchestrator. The duet on forgiveness in the second act is very moving...as is the music for Von Stade. Occasionlly the opera goes a bit over the top, particularly at the end of the first act, where Sister Helen seems to be having a psychotic break...seems a bit much. But more often the piece is pretty understated for an opera and the ending is extremely effective.
So why only three stars? I think the problem rests with the libretto. This opera continues the deplorable late 20th century trend in opera toward sung play. As opera houses move toward commissioning playwrites such as McNally and William Hoffman as librettists the things that distiguish the particular art of the librettist are dying out. This opera libretto reads like a play. While there are a few ensembles that attempt to present multiple viewpoints simulteneously, they don't compare to the great ensemble situations of a Da Ponte or Boito. And perhaps more importantly, though McNally does include soliloquies, they are in a rather straightforward prose...one that is hard to set well in music. Too many syllables and too little verbal rhythm. As a result, no matter how hard Heggie struggles (and he does a heroic job at this) the opera never bursts into song, as it obviously wants to. Some will say that this is because the opera is throughcomposed, as is the style in modern opera. While that's true, you only have to listen to the operas of Barber or Carlisle Floyd to here examples of throughcomposed opera that still retains the sense of song. Even Nixon in China manages to create a sense of song while remaining throughcomposed.
Perhaps the difference is that in the most successful contemporary opera libretti, the librettist is either the composer, or a poet. In many ways, the best choice for a modern librettist is to follow the practice of Broadway and let the dialogue be written by a playwrite, reserving the set pieces (and most operas still have set pieces, even Britten) for a poet or lyricist. Certainly, this would have helped this opera to do what opera can do best, soar.
Hard to review this one. I like it, but with reservations.
