A vision of Death Row: Heggie’s Dead Man Walking opens the Met season

Ryan McKinny (Joseph De Rocher ) and Joyce DiDonato (Sister Helen Prejean)

Jonah Mussolino (Younger Brother), Joyce DiDonato (Sister Helen) and Susan Graham (Mrs De Rocher)

Ryan McKinny (Joseph), Joyce DiDonato (Sister Helen) and Raymond Aceto (George Benton)

Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking

Latonia Moore (Sister Rose) and Joyce DiDonato (Sister Helen)

By Robert Levine, 27 September 2023

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“Yannick Nézet-Séguin... has become a Met superstar in record time and it’s easy to understand why”

Reviewed at Lincoln Center: Metropolitan Opera House, New York City on 26 September 2023

Heggie, Dead Man Walking

Metropolitan Opera

Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Conductor

Ivo van Hove, Director

Jan Versweyveld, Set Designer, Lighting Designer

An D'Huys, Costume Designer

The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra

The Metropolitan Opera Chorus

Latonia Moore, Sister Rose

Joyce DiDonato, Sister Helen Prejean

Ryan McKinny, Joseph De Rocher

Susan Graham, Mrs. Patrick De Rocher

Krysty Swann, Jade Boucher

Rod Gilfry, Owen Hart

Wendy Bryn Harmer, Kitty Hart

Magdalena Kuźma, Sister Catherine

Briana Hunter, Sister Lillianne

Chad Shelton, Father Grenville

Chauncey Packer, Howard Boucher

Raymond Aceto, George Benton

Christopher Job, First Prison Guard

John Hancock, Second Prison Guard

Jonah Mussolino, Younger Brother

Asmik Grigorian strengthens the Met’s revival of Eugene Onegin

Susan Stempleski, 20th April

The Lithuanian soprano’s riveting performance as the central character in Tchaikovsky’s operatic masterpiece lights up Deborah Warner’s mostly bland production.

****1

Innocence: Saariaho’s final opera receives New York premiere

Kurt Gottschalk, 6th April

At the Metropolitan Opera, Innocence proves a gripping and perhaps divisive piece which feels real because it is a reflection of our reality, with no realistic hope of finding peace.

*****

Tristan und Isolde at the Met: staging gets in the way of the music

No’a L. bat Miri, 9th March

Michael Spyres shines in his debut as Tristan alongside powerhouse soprano Lise Davidsen as Isolde in Yuval Sharon's new, beguiling production at the Metropolitan Opera.

***11

Ailyn Pérez is the perfect Butterfly in the Met’s revival

Robert Levine, 13th January

Good Butterflys are not that difficult to come by but great ones are very very rare. Ailyn Pérez fits the bill in this revival of Anthony Minghella’s classic staging.

*****

Vocal thrills in Met’s traditional staging of Bellini’s I puritani

Susan Stempleski, 31st December

Marco Armiliato conducts a finely balanced rendition of Bellini's final masterpiece with a stellar cast headed by Lisette Oropesa and Lawrence Brownlee.

*****

Porgy and Bess returns stronger than ever at the Met

Robert Levine, 7th December

Back to Catfish Row for another revival of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess and James Robinson’s show continue to wow our writer.

*****

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Robert Levine

Robert T. Levine is a New York born-and-bred music writer with a particular interest in music for the voice. His work has appeared in many periodicals and newspapers. He is the author of many books, including The Story of the Orchestra, four volumes in the Black Dog & Leventhal Opera Library, and, most recently, Maria Callas: A Musical Biography.

A vision of Death Row: Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking opens the Met season