Airmail

Jake Heggie opens new seasons at the Met and in Houston with his first and 10th operas
October 2023

Boyish at 62, the American composer Jake Heggie isn’t one to preen. “I was 39 when Dead Man Walking opened,” he says. “At that age, Mozart had been dead for four years.” Noted. But how many opera composers have scored a bull’s-eye the first time out? Mascagni, for one, with Cavalleria Rusticana, and then Leoncavallo, with Pagliacci. As for Mozart, Wagner, Verdi, Bizet, Puccini? Nope.