Backstage with Matthew: Forgiveness at the Edge
The opera came out of the best-selling memoir by Sister Helen Prejean, later turned into the Academy Award-winning film starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn. The book takes us on Sister Helen’s journey as a spiritual advisor to convicted murderers on death row. Sister Helen began this ministry in 1982 and continues to this day, working tirelessly to educate about the death penalty, and to provide spiritual guidance to those being executed as well as the families of victims. Sister Helen is one of the most inspiring people I have been privileged to meet and I wanted to introduce you to her as we bring her story back to the stage. I had the great honor of interviewing her in mid-August and wanted to share some excerpts of that interview with you.
I asked Sister Helen about the progression of book to film to opera, and she shared how immediately she and Jake Heggie connected over the possibilities of an operatic version.
I asked Sister Helen about what it is like to see yourself on stage, particularly given the profound vulnerability of her story. I was deeply moved by how, for her, this is not at all about telling her story, but about creating awareness around this subject in the world.
When Sister Helen first talked to Jake about creating the opera she had two requests: 1) that it be lyrical, and 2) that it focus on redemption. I asked Sister Helen about whether her work on death row has allowed her to see a throughline around forgiveness. She talks here about how to even think about forgiveness for crimes so horrific, and she gives a powerful example of Lloyd LeBlanc, the father of the murdered teenager, David. He ultimately came to forgive Mrs. Sonnier, the mother of the murderers who took his son away from him. (The names in the opera are different but are based on these real stories.)
Sister Helen is such a powerful advocate for the abolition of the death penalty in part because she has been there. She has now accompanied eight men to the execution chamber, and for some has been right there next to them at the moment of execution as their spiritual advisor. She talks here about being in the execution chamber just last year in Texas.
Sister Helen goes on to talk about the importance of her work in telling the public what happens in the execution chambers, how scripted the whole process is, and how the process is often ‘sanctified’ through religion.
She asks how people can make the decision as to whether someone should die for their crimes - “we can never have enough wisdom”.
Sister Helen began her work as a spiritual advisor on death row having been asked just to write a letter to Patrick Sonnier. She never imagined that she would end up visiting him, let alone being with him for his execution. It was a profound inflection point in her work and life, and I asked her whether there were things happening in her life and faith at that point that opened her up to this pathway. This is Sister Helen’s definition of “Sneaky Jesus”:
Opera allows us into the most intimate, vulnerable parts of a deep and emotional story and in Dead Man Walking we feel that so poignantly. I asked Sister Helen about what it was like to enter the Louisiana State Penitentiary and meet with convicted murderer Patrick Sonnier for the first time.
All of the manifestations of Dead Man Walking (including a new graphic novel version to be published on October 28) are, for Sister Helen, ways to bring the subject of the death penalty to greater awareness for the public. I asked her what it takes to move this awareness forward and the forces needed to realize change.
It is such a privilege to be telling Sister Helen’s story on the San Francisco Opera stage once again, and so inspiring that her work has only intensified since 2000 when the opera premiered. It means so much that Sister Helen will be with us for opening night and we have a number of public events happening around the opening if you would like to hear Sister Helen live in conversation. Our website has details of those events and I hope you’ll join us.
The opera house is a place where we tell some of the most vulnerable stories of humanity, of humanity at the extremes, intersecting the many layers of tragedy. We saw that last year so poignantly with Innocence and I know that we will experience it profoundly with Dead Man Walking. I’m deeply grateful to Sister Helen, to Jake Heggie, Terrence McNally and all those involved in bringing the complex truths of existence into an art-work of such intense meaning and impact.
Composer Jake Heggie and Sister Helen Prejean around the time of the opera’s premiere.