Mercury News

'Dead Man Walking' opera returns to city that made it a sensation
September 2025

Twenty-five years ago, a new opera titled "Dead Man Walking" made its world premiere in a San Francisco Opera production. Based on the same-titled 1993 memoir by author and activist Sister Helen Prejean, it was an instant sensation — and the start of a brilliant career by composer Jake Heggie. Now, a quarter century after its world premiere, "Dead Man Walking" is returning to the company that gave the opera its first performances.

Heggie seems almost taken aback by his own success — not just with “Dead Man Walking,” but with the dozens of new works including operas, song cycles and other pieces he’s composed in recent years. He says he’s lucky; at the time “Dead Man Walking” was commissioned, he was working in San Francisco Opera’s publicity/marketing department and was yet to be known as an accomplished composer. Today, he calls it an “astonishing full-circle moment,” and admits that he’s still a little amazed.