New American operas usually have a hard time making it, but Jake Heggie's "Dead Man Walking," the story of Sister Helen Prejean and her ministry to death row inmates and their victims, set box office records at San Francisco Opera, which commissioned and premiered it two years ago. It's since taken on its own life.
More than seven companies are lined up to present it, and first on the list is Opera Pacific, which presents the show beginning tonight.
But fans who arrive at the Orange County Performing Arts Center prepared to see the Joe Mantello-directed production that entranced San Francisco, selling a record 1,000 tickets a day at one point, are going to be surprised.
They will see several stars from the San Francisco cast--Kristin Jepson (alternating with Theodora Hanslowe) as Prejean, John Packard as the death row murderer Joseph DeRocher and Frederica von Stade as his mother--but Opera Pacific and six other "Dead Man Walking" tour stops will feature a brand-new production of the opera.
"There were so many companies right after the premiere that wanted to do the piece," Heggie said. Some, including Houston Grand Opera and Opera Australia, will present the original production.
"But a lot of them have smaller stages and lack the facilities that the War Memorial Opera House [in San Francisco] has," Heggie said. "Opera Pacific called them and said, 'What if we work together and create a production that would be easier to tour and cost less?' If they hadn't been able to get together, they probably wouldn't have been able to do this piece."
Opera Pacific took the lead on the new production because it was first to commit to showing the new opera, even before it premiered.
"None of the artistic directorial team who created the San Francisco production were available," said Opera Pacific artistic director John DeMain, so he turned to director Leonard Foglia and Foglia's longtime set design collaborator, Michael McGarty, who created the 1996 Tony Award-winning Broadway production of Terrence McNally's "Master Class."
"I didn't see the San Francisco Opera production and I didn't want to," Foglia said during a recent break in rehearsals. "I didn't want to be influenced. I saw the movie, whenever it came out, and didn't remember much of it. Then after all our decisions were made, I watched it again. The movie is wildly different. It's real. We weren't even close. That was good. It's so far from it, anyone who looks at it will realize it's not a representational thing."
