Dead Man Walking, ENO at the London Coliseum

"This November, English National Opera brings a defining work of modern American music drama to the London Coliseum. Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking, first performed in 2000, has already entered the repertory as a contemporary classic, a rarity in the world of opera where even success often means a brief blaze before oblivion. Yet Heggie's opera endures: a work of moral courage and emotional immediacy that continues to challenge audiences wherever it is performed."

"Dead Man Walking is based on Sister Helen Prejean's 1993 memoir, a candid and compassionate account of her work as a spiritual adviser to men on death row in Louisiana. Her book became an international best-seller, a moral touchstone in the debate over capital punishment, and the basis for Tim Robbins's 1995 Oscar-winning film starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn."

English National Opera stages Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking at the London Coliseum in November 2025, the first fully staged UK professional presentation and a co-production with Opera North and the Finnish National Opera. The opera adapts Sister Helen Prejean's 1993 memoir about spiritual advising on Louisiana's death row, a book that became a best-seller and inspired Tim Robbins's 1995 film. Heggie and librettist Terrence McNally fashioned operatic confrontations of sin and grace, justice and mercy. Premiered by San Francisco Opera, the work has entered the repertory with over eighty productions, praised for its cinematic sweep and direct, tonal emotional language.

Read at www.london-unattached.com