Dead Man Walking • Erato 2001 / Virgin Classics 2012
This live recording captures the world premiere production of Dead Man Walking at San Francisco Opera in October 2000. Susan Graham (Sister Helen), John Packard (Joseph De Rocher), and Frederica von Stade (Joseph’s Mother) star, alongside Theresa Hamm-Smith, Jay Hunter Morris, Gary Rideout, Catherine Cook, Robert Orth, Nicolle Foland, John Ames, David Okerland, and others. Patrick Summers conducts the San Francisco Opera and Chorus.
Joyce DiDonato, Philip Cutlip, and Frederica von Stade star in this live recording of Houston Grand Opera’s performance of Dead Man Walking in 2011 along with the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra and Chorus and Patrick Summers.
“Although Heggie’s opera is universal in its themes and moral scope, it is also aesthetically and culturally a distinctively American opera. His music is rich and emotionally charged, and carries enormous atmospheric power. There is a sweep to this work which can only be called inspired. Heggie’s achievement is simply immense...”