The Metropolitan Opera: Dead Man Walking
Original title: Heggie: Dead Man Walking
- Episode aired Oct 21, 2023
- 3h 15m
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6.8/10
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Astounding!
I've been going to the opera for over sixty years now. In that time I've been fortunate enough to see some very great performances. Still, none has moved me more than this afternoon's live cinema cast of Jake Heggie's *Dead Man Walking* from New York's Metropolitan Opera.
Everything was done so well.
To begin with, there were the three outstanding performances of Joyce DiDonato as sister Helen, Ryan McKinny as Matt De Rocher, the man on death row whom she is trying to save, and Susan Graham as Matt's mother. (Latonia Moore did a fine job as Sister Rose, but there just isn't that much to her part.) The audience favorite was clearly DiDonato. She did everything right. Sang beautifully, went beyond fine acting to become the character whom she was portraying. My only problem-and it had nothing to do with DiDonato-was that I was not always sure I understood what her character wanted of Matt, whom the audience knows to be guilty. Terrence McNally's libretto is indeed wonderful-more powerful, in my opinion, than the movie script on which it was based, of which more in a moment-but I sometimes could not understand what Sister Helen expected/wanted to happen with Matt.
Every bit DiDonato's equal was Ryan McKinny as DeRocher. I suspect this performance, cinema cast around the globe, will make of him a truly international star. He sang well, acted so well that I thought I was watching the real-life person in question, and gave a powerful physical dimension to the role that I can't imagine many opera singers being able to equal. My only "worry" as such is that Hollywood will steal him away, since he is not just a powerful actor but also very handsome. For those of you who have seen the movie, he looks nothing like Sean Penn, and does not try to give his character the slimy dimension that Penn conveys early in the movie. It is therefore easier-and I say easier, but not easy-to feel for his character, even though we know he has committed heinous acts, and to see in him some sort of dignity as a human being.
Right behind these two was Susan Graham. Again, she acted so well that she became the character she was portraying for me, even though I have seen her in I don't know how many Met cinema casts over the years.
The rest of the cast was all fine, though I did not understand why some of them had been coached into doing almost caricatural Louisiana accents, such as the prison chaplain and the motorcycle policeman. Those characters in the movie don't sound like that.
The production was ingenious. (I've never seen the work before, so I don't know what the previous 70-some productions looked like.) This one, by Ivo van Hove, eschewed realism for a simple box with video projections on occasion. My first reaction was that I wouldn't like it, but I found that it really drew me into the performance.
And then there was the opera itself. When you see Aida or Madame Butterfly, you don't review the work itself, of course. The classics have earned their place in the repertory.
But with a *new* opera-relatively; this has been around for almost a quarter century-a few words about the work itself won't seem strange.
First, I will say that I have learned, by going to other Met cinema casts, that there is no point in my expecting new works to have the same sort of musical values as the classics. The composers' goal is not to write something tuneful that I would want to listen to at home while reading a book. Heggie's score is melodic, but I can't say that I retained any of the *tunes*.
That is not to say that it is not powerful, however, or that the music does not serve the drama well. In fact, when I got home I watched the movie of *Dead Man Walking* on which the opera is based, and felt very clearly how much the music had added to the opera in dramatic power.
There are several set pieces that are particularly striking. For me, the most powerful of all was the quintet sung by the four parents and Sister Helen while they are awaiting the verdict of the parole board. And then, shortly after that, the duet between Sister Helen and DeRocher. Yes, on occasion, particularly early on in the first part, the music occasionally sounds sing-song and pedestrian. But far more often, it serves to give the work a dramatic dimension that the movie, fine as it is, never matches.
All of this comes together in the last scene, when De Rocher is strapped to the gurney and given a lethal injection. McKinny's face, expressing all his horror at what is finally happening to him, and the heaving/shaking of his chest had me horrified as well. Again, he is able to give a physicality to the role that adds another, powerful dimension.
This is not a production I could sit through in the theater often. It literally left me emotionally drained. But also deeply impressed. If this is what modern opera is to be, then bring it on. I won't enjoy *The Daughter of the Regiment* or *La Bohème* any less for it.
Everything was done so well.
To begin with, there were the three outstanding performances of Joyce DiDonato as sister Helen, Ryan McKinny as Matt De Rocher, the man on death row whom she is trying to save, and Susan Graham as Matt's mother. (Latonia Moore did a fine job as Sister Rose, but there just isn't that much to her part.) The audience favorite was clearly DiDonato. She did everything right. Sang beautifully, went beyond fine acting to become the character whom she was portraying. My only problem-and it had nothing to do with DiDonato-was that I was not always sure I understood what her character wanted of Matt, whom the audience knows to be guilty. Terrence McNally's libretto is indeed wonderful-more powerful, in my opinion, than the movie script on which it was based, of which more in a moment-but I sometimes could not understand what Sister Helen expected/wanted to happen with Matt.
Every bit DiDonato's equal was Ryan McKinny as DeRocher. I suspect this performance, cinema cast around the globe, will make of him a truly international star. He sang well, acted so well that I thought I was watching the real-life person in question, and gave a powerful physical dimension to the role that I can't imagine many opera singers being able to equal. My only "worry" as such is that Hollywood will steal him away, since he is not just a powerful actor but also very handsome. For those of you who have seen the movie, he looks nothing like Sean Penn, and does not try to give his character the slimy dimension that Penn conveys early in the movie. It is therefore easier-and I say easier, but not easy-to feel for his character, even though we know he has committed heinous acts, and to see in him some sort of dignity as a human being.
Right behind these two was Susan Graham. Again, she acted so well that she became the character she was portraying for me, even though I have seen her in I don't know how many Met cinema casts over the years.
The rest of the cast was all fine, though I did not understand why some of them had been coached into doing almost caricatural Louisiana accents, such as the prison chaplain and the motorcycle policeman. Those characters in the movie don't sound like that.
The production was ingenious. (I've never seen the work before, so I don't know what the previous 70-some productions looked like.) This one, by Ivo van Hove, eschewed realism for a simple box with video projections on occasion. My first reaction was that I wouldn't like it, but I found that it really drew me into the performance.
And then there was the opera itself. When you see Aida or Madame Butterfly, you don't review the work itself, of course. The classics have earned their place in the repertory.
But with a *new* opera-relatively; this has been around for almost a quarter century-a few words about the work itself won't seem strange.
First, I will say that I have learned, by going to other Met cinema casts, that there is no point in my expecting new works to have the same sort of musical values as the classics. The composers' goal is not to write something tuneful that I would want to listen to at home while reading a book. Heggie's score is melodic, but I can't say that I retained any of the *tunes*.
That is not to say that it is not powerful, however, or that the music does not serve the drama well. In fact, when I got home I watched the movie of *Dead Man Walking* on which the opera is based, and felt very clearly how much the music had added to the opera in dramatic power.
There are several set pieces that are particularly striking. For me, the most powerful of all was the quintet sung by the four parents and Sister Helen while they are awaiting the verdict of the parole board. And then, shortly after that, the duet between Sister Helen and DeRocher. Yes, on occasion, particularly early on in the first part, the music occasionally sounds sing-song and pedestrian. But far more often, it serves to give the work a dramatic dimension that the movie, fine as it is, never matches.
All of this comes together in the last scene, when De Rocher is strapped to the gurney and given a lethal injection. McKinny's face, expressing all his horror at what is finally happening to him, and the heaving/shaking of his chest had me horrified as well. Again, he is able to give a physicality to the role that adds another, powerful dimension.
This is not a production I could sit through in the theater often. It literally left me emotionally drained. But also deeply impressed. If this is what modern opera is to be, then bring it on. I won't enjoy *The Daughter of the Regiment* or *La Bohème* any less for it.
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- richard-1787
- Oct 21, 2023
Details
- Release date
- Also known as
- MET Hombre muerto caminando
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime3 hours 15 minutes
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