Sigma Alpha Iota

sai-national.org • Fall 2023 21 The Metropolitan Opera opens its 2023–24 season with the company premiere of Jake Heggie's masterpiece Dead Man Walking on Tuesday, September 26, kicking off a historic season featuring more recent work than any other season in modern Met history. Based on Sister Helen Prejean's memoir, with a libretto by Tony and Emmy Award–winner Terrence McNally, the story follows Sister Helen's fight for the soul of a condemned murderer. After his debut with a critically acclaimed production of Mozart's Don Giovanni in the 2022–23 season, Tony Award–winning director Ivo van Hove returns with a staging that explores the nature of love, forgiveness, and redemption. Leading the star-studded cast, Grammy Award–winning mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato is Sister Helen, alongside bass- baritone Ryan McKinny as death-row inmate Joseph De Rocher, soprano Latonia Moore as Sister Rose, and mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, who originated the role of Sister Helen in the opera's 2000 premiere, as De Rocher's mother. Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Met's Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director, conducts what has become the most performed contemporary work of the past two decades. Steven Osgood conducts the performances on October 8 and 12. Following Opening Night on September 26, there are eight additional performances through October 21. "Dead Man Walking as the 2023–24 season opener signifies our commitment to advance the art form," said Peter Gelb, the company's Maria Manetti Shrem General Manager. "It is with new work that opera will attract younger and more diverse audiences. "Music challenges us to live up to the most glorious version of ourselves," says Maestro Nézet-Séguin. "The Met is invested in being a part of that sacred journey, and my hope is that the music and experiences we present on our stage touch the deepest parts of our audiences' souls. Dead Man Walking's creative team also includes set and lighting designer Jan Versweyveld, costume designer An D'Huys, projection designer Christopher Ash, and sound designer Tom Gibbons in his Met debut. Sister Helen Prejean is known as a champion of social justice, having dedicated her life to eradicating the death penalty. Her award-winning memoir — which was also turned into an Academy Award–winning movie starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn — followed her work as a spiritual advisor to men on death row. Sister Helen's 40 years of advocacy have been instrumental in sparking national dialogue on capital punishment and in shaping the Catholic Church's vigorous opposition to all executions. The 2023–24 season also includes three additional Met premieres — Anthony Davis's X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X (Nov. 3–Dec. 2); Daniel Catán's Florencia en el Amazonas (Nov. 16–Dec. 14), the company's first opera in Spanish in nearly a century; and John Adams's El Niño (Apr. 23–May17) — as well as revivals of Terence Blanchard's Fire Shut Up in My Bones and Kevin Puts's The Hours, showcasing the Met's dedication to expanding the repertoire and to reaching new audiences. While one-third of the operas presented this season are recent works, the lineup also includes a full slate of classics, among them new productions of Bizet's Carmen (Dec. 31– Jan. 27; Apr. 25–May 25) and Verdi's La Forza del Destino (Feb. 26–Mar. 29) and revivals of works by Verdi, Puccini, Wagner, Gounod, Mozart, and Gluck. — August 21, 2023 press release The Met Opens its 2023–24 Season with the Company Premiere of Dead Man Walking The MET Joyce DiDonato as Sister Helen and Ryan McKinny as the death-row inmate Joseph De Rocher. Joyce DiDonato as Sister Helen and Ryan McKinny as the death-row inmate Joseph De Rocher.

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