An Introduction to Dead Man Walking

Based on the best-selling 1993 book by Sister Helen Prejean, a American nun, Dead Man Walking, the opera, tells the story of Sister Helen and her work as a spiritual advisor to convicts on Death Row in the USA.

Commissioned by San Francisco Opera and premiering in 2000, this opera takes us inside the Death Row with Joseph de Rocher, a composite of two convicts that Sister Helen worked with. At the beginning of the opera, Joseph and his brother murder two people. The opera unfolds as Sister Helen agrees to become Joseph’s spiritual advisor and goes on to meet Joseph’s family, the families of the two murdered victims, the staff at the prison. Sister Helen wrestles with the challenge of friendship and forgiveness that her role as spiritual advisor has brought her.

Discover more about the story of Dead Man Walking.

Sister Helen’s book was also the basis of the movie of the same name starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn, the former winning the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1995.

Jake Heggie is known as one of modern opera’s most exciting contemporary composers.

In his work, he aims to be making opera accessible to modern audiences. Some of his work challenges the narrow definition of what opera can be. His operas works include adaptations of It’s a Wonderful Life, Moby-Dick and The End of the Affair.

A co-production with Opera North, Finnish National Opera and Ballet and ENO, the opera will be directed by ENO Artistic Director Annilese Miskimmon, who has recently directed The Handmaid’s Tale, Suor Angelica and The Dead City at the ENO.

Operatic heavyweights, Christine Rice and Michael Mayers will perform in the leading roles. And on the podium will be one of opera’s exciting young conductors Kerem Hasan, who won the prestigious Nestle and Salzburg Festival Conductors Award in 2017.