Dead Man Walking at 25: The Untold Story
Building Memory
The core of the archival collection, “Streaming the First Century,” developed as San Francisco Opera expanded its digital streaming offerings during its Centennial Season of 2022-23. Barbara, a notable historian and archivist, and Jeff, a scholar and published writer, were the logical choice to be the stewards of a project aimed at organizing hundreds of hours of recordings, thousands of images, and dozens of documents into a living, breathing, interactive online celebration of the Company.
Together, they worked on the project as stewards and sleuths, with Barbara lending her eye for detail and archival narrative know-how, and Jeff contributing his publishing and historical context. Their task was to wade through a century’s worth of artifacts, including rehearsal tapes and personal notes, oral histories and production photographs, and bring those fragments to life in a body of work that responds to memory and the ever-evolving nature of opera itself.
Jake Heggie, Jeffrey McMillan, and Frederica von Stade / Matthew Washburn
The most recent addition to “Streaming the First Century” is Dead Man Walking at 25. The effort shows the technical skill and emotional finesse needed to harmonize the experiences of twelve people—the artists, administrators, and craftspeople who spearheaded San Francisco Opera’s world premiere (2000-01). Twenty-five years and 85 premieres later, the project is a choral story of creative birth, chance, and legacy.
Prelude: 1994-1998
It started when Elena Park showed up at a champagne party and met Jake Heggie. Heggie was a highly talented pianist and composer who recently relocated to San Francisco from Los Angeles. There was an opening for a staff writer in the PR department at San Francisco Opera, which Elena ran. So impressed was she with Heggie’s musical background, writing ability, and temperament that she moved fast. Jake was hired in 1994, in time for the Conrad Susa Dangerous Liaisons.
Park, Lotfi Mansouri, and Jake Heggie
“Lotfi [Mansouri, general director 1988-2001], when he took over, pulled me aside almost immediately and said, “Kip, I want to do three things: I want to commission an opera based on Dangerous Liaisons…and I want to commission an opera based on Streetcar Named Desire, and I want to commission an opera with a libretto by Terrence McNally.” —Kip Cranna, Dramaturg Emeritus, then Director of Music Administration.
The Commission: 1997-2000
The interviews chronicle the friendship and artistic trust that connected Frederica von Stade and Jake Heggie. He wrote music with her voice in mind, and she recognized in his work a rare honesty.
When San Francisco Opera commissioned Jake’s first opera, he hoped Frederica would embody Sister Helen. She turned down the role, but her belief in him never wavered. Her own experience working with at-risk families in Oakland drew her instead to the role of Joseph De Rocher’s mother. That choice deepened the work’s authenticity. Their partnership gave Dead Man Walking its emotional core, transforming the opera into a profoundly human story.
Jake Heggie, Terrence McNally, Patrick Summers, Joe Mantello
“...he’s [Jake Heggie] very dedicated to story, to life experience. So I just fell in love with these songs, and I thought, Wow, Jake, come on! Let’s do some things together.” —Frederica von Stade.
“The whole creation of the piece is this series of magical doors and coincidences” - Jake Heggie.
R&D: 1998-2000
All twelve interviewees offer distinct perspectives; Barbara and Jeff weave their voices into a rich, layered narrative. Retired Props Master Lori Harrison recalls visiting Angola Prison to see the actual execution chamber firsthand. While Scene Shop Foreman John Del Bono reflects on his first season at San Francisco Opera, he recalls his unexpected role as the supernumerary who strapped Joseph De Rocher to the electric chair. Together, these recollections create a behind-the-scenes account of Dead Man Walking that is as gripping and intense as the opera itself.
John Packard as Joseph de Rocher, Dead Man Walking, 2000. Photographer: Ken Friedman / SF Opera
“I had never experienced anything like that in my whole life, and it’s still probably the most powerful … experience of my opera career,” —John Del Bono
Rehearsals: 1999-2000
The recollections chart the creative journey: early workshops buoyed by nervous energy, the difficulty of staging intense scenes without being overwhelmed emotionally. Barbara and Jeff drew out these varied perspectives, documenting both the opera itself and the process behind its design and production.
Jerry Sherk, Jake Heggie, and Joe Mantello
“I remember the workshops being really useful… [The conductor’s] focus is so much on getting the musical world right and everything that that means—color and tempo and balance—that I was very late to really get hit with the emotional impact of the work.” — Patrick Summers, Conductor
“You know, everyone was just collaborating together, and that was such an amazing... I’d never been in a process like that before, and we were all able to give feedback in how we felt about things, and it was just a really wonderful energy, and it really helped build the momentum to the actual rehearsal process and the performances of the piece. So it really started then.” —Mezzo-Soprano Catherine Cook, role Jade Boucher, mother of the murdered boy.
Opening Night: October 7, 2000
The project combines immersive archival exploration and live-streamed experiences to provide opera lovers with a multifaceted journey into Dead Man Walking. What makes the project striking is the way it opens up “magic portals” through time, letting listeners experience the visceral impact of the opera within a larger social and artistic continuum. These interviews document the people behind the scenes on opening night, a night rife with controversy, expectation, and raw emotion in the Opera House.
Jake Heggie, Susan Graham, Terrence McNally, and Robert Orth (2000-01)
“After I sang that last note. And then a blackout. Nobody could breathe. The audience couldn’t breathe. And then finally, once they could breathe, they just started screaming and cheering.
—Mezzo-Soprano Susan Graham
The interview goes on, capturing Susan’s memory of going backstage after the bows. Julie Andrews was standing in front of her dressing room door. She takes Susan’s hands, complimenting her “...beautiful high G’s.” Susan stood starstruck.
I worshipped her since I was a child. I wanted to be her so much so that when I was a senior in high school in Midland, Texas, I sang Maria in The Sound of Music. So I said to her like an idiot, ‘You were the first nun I ever sang.’”
Dead Man Walking at 25
The 25th anniversary observance of Dead Man Walking is a meditation on how opera itself can help such dialogue about mortality, justice, and humanity. Catherine Cook, who originated the role of Jade Boucher, says it was after Dead Man Walking that artists and organizations “began to take risks.”
Jake Heggie himself muses on the opera’s “...unwillingness to provide easy solutions,” expressing his belief that art’s ultimate value is to “...inspire questions and introspection.”
Artwork by Brian Stauffer
For Barbara and Jeff, assembling this collection was a risk in and of itself. A bet that retaining every last scrap of memory, every vignette, every audio cue would mean gifts of inspiration and enlightenment for the next hundred years of operagoers.
As curators, Barbara and Jeff work within a belief that preserving witnesses’ voices will inspire and enlighten generations of opera lovers, both present and future. They are crafting more than an archive; they are creating a story of collaboration and art’s enduring power to cast a glow on humanity. Using technical skill and storytelling, Dead Man Walking at 25 seamlessly honors both the work and the living history of the opera itself.
As new interviews and sessions continue to emerge, audiences are invited to witness how the voices and visions of Dead Man Walking will resonate far into the next century.
Listen and read the whole interview collection: Dead Man Walking at 25