Classical Voice North America

Heggie’s Opera Bounty And Diversity Mirrored In Swell Of Productions
September 2023

For Heggie who writes for the lyric stage, the planets have aligned as never before. On Sept. 26, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut with his firstling, the international hit Dead Man Walking, adapted — with librettist Terrence McNally — from Sister Helen Prejean’s best-selling memoir of her work as a spiritual counselor to killers on Death Row. And for an encore, there’s the Civil War spy thriller Intelligence, opening the Houston Grand Opera season on Oct. 20. The cherry on the cake: a Met premiere for Heggie’s well-traveled maximum opus Moby-Dick, dates to be announced.