Dead Man Walking review – The searing honesty and humanity in ENO’s presentation of Heiji’s compelling opera | Opera

pRestaged in 2000, Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking is the most performed opera of the 21st century, yet surprisingly this co-production with Opera North and the Finnish National Opera is its first full professional performance in the UK. Based on Sister Helen Prejean’s 1993 memoir of the same name, it depicts her experiences as a spiritual advisor to a convicted murderer on death row: Joseph De Rocher (a composite character based on two men in the book).

As Prejean herself points out, the work is not about the death penalty per se, but rather a meditation on issues of truth, love, mercy, forgiveness and redemption. And yet, as the opera reaches its chilling conclusion, and in Anneliese Miskimon’s searingly honest production, we hear the dying man’s last breaths, it’s hard not to think of a society in which death by lethal injection is still a legal punishment today.

Despite the apocalyptic subject matter, Hughie and screenwriter Terrence McNally bring a great deal of humanity and simple wisdom to a story in which extraordinary events affect ordinary people. In contrast, there is the suffering of the survivors: Des Rocher’s mother and the victims’ parents. Brutal rapes and murders occur in the opening scene, removing any temptation to play a game of “did he do it or didn’t he?” However, although we know he is guilty, his confession to Sister Helen is the emotional heart of the opera.

Hughie’s masterful score is unabashedly tonal, drawing on chants, spirituals, jazz and blues, but it never sounds like a mere imitation. The music is alternately propulsive and supportive, commanding attention with such ease throughout a work that it makes taking the time to tell its story a virtue.

Muskemon’s production keeps the murder victims front and center, and their ghosts return to haunt Sister Helen in a theatrical coup at the end of the first act. Alex Eales’ ingenious family does duty as a state prison, a nun’s mission, and even a Louisiana highway. Evie Gurney’s costumes, despite their strange and bizarre wigs, and DM Wood’s atmospheric lighting do the rest. The score is played to perfection by Eno’s orchestra, and presented with intense rehearsal by Kerem Hassan, whose sense of rhythm never falters.

Kristen Rice, who sings with unforced refinement, brings enormous emotional reserve and natural physicality to Sister Helen, complementing the sarcastic humor with commanding stillness. As Des Rochers, Michael Mayes, in his thirteenth production of the opera, sings with power and pathos while oscillating between anger and despair. Sarah Connolly brings vocal elegance and gentle empathy to Des Rochers’ exhausted mother, with Madeleine Boreham her clear voice as the supportive Sister Rose. Ronald Sam and Jack Embrillo leave their mark as an unjust prison chaplain and the conflicted father of one of the victims, respectively.