The New York Times

Classical Music and Opera This Fall: Programs, Premieres and More
September 2023

Opening the Metropolitan Opera’s season is Dead Man Walking, featuring Jake Heggie’s poignant, plain-spoken music and an acute libretto by Terrence McNally, based on Sister Helen Prejean’s memoir about her ministry to a convict on death row.

Two days after Yo-Yo Ma opens the season, the Philharmonic hosts Joshua Bell, in the American premiere of a new suite of pieces by Jake Heggie, Jennifer Higdon, Edgar Meyer, Jessie Montgomery and Kevin Puts.

Dead Man Walking isn’t Jake Heggie’s only major opening of the season; arguably bigger is the premiere of his latest theater work, Intelligence, inspired by the true story of a Civil War spy ring.