The University of Colorado at Boulder will stage the first college production of "Dead Man Walking," an opera based on the acclaimed book by Sister Helen Prejean, a Catholic nun who opposes the death penalty.
The university's opera program will stage the production at Macky Auditorium on the CU-Boulder campus at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 26, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27, and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 28. The opera contains scenes for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is advised.
CU-Boulder's performance of "Dead Man Walking" will be the first on a university campus and the first in the Rocky Mountain region. The opera, written by librettist Terrence McNally and composer Jake Heggie, premiered in San Francisco in 2000 and has become one of the opera world's most performed new works.
"Producing 'Dead Man Walking' is an extraordinary opportunity for our opera program," said Stage Director William Gustafson, an associate professor and director of opera studies at CU-Boulder. "The students are energized and ready for the challenge of mounting this work."
Commissioned by the San Francisco Opera, "Dead Man Walking" is based on Prejean's best-selling book, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1993. In the book, Prejean recounts her experience with the death row in her home state of Louisiana and her efforts to lead a condemned man on a journey to redemption.
A 1996 film based on the book garnered four Academy Award nominations for writer and director Tim Robbins and a best actress Oscar for Susan Sarandon.
The CU-Boulder opera will feature performances by students and faculty from the university's vocal program, including Julia Tobiska, Margaret Lattimore, Erik Angerhofer, Mario Diaz-Moresco, Megan Marino, Tara Davison, Margaret Higginson and Lucas Graf. Timothy Long is music director and conductor, Tom Robbins is costume designer and Peter Dean Beck is set designer.
Related activities that will be free and open to the public include a brown-bag preview of the production at noon on Wednesday, Oct. 24, in the Music Theatre at the College of Music. The preview will provide the public with an opportunity to join the cast and directors for a glimpse of selections from "Dead Man Walking."
Other free public events include a screening of the film "Dead Man Walking," starring Sarandon and Sean Penn. Part of CU-Boulder's International Film Series, the screening is at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 24, in Muenzinger Auditorium on campus.
On Thursday, Oct. 25, at 7:30 p.m., CU Law School Professor H. Patrick Furman will moderate a death penalty discussion at Duane Physics, room G1B30. Panelists will include public defender Doug Wilson, former Adams County District Attorney Bob Grant and Howard Morton, a founding member of Families of Homicide Victims and Missing Persons. Sponsors include the CU-Boulder sociology department and law school and the Boulder County Bar Association.
On Friday, Oct. 26, at 2 p.m., the CU-Boulder Center for Humanities and the Arts will host a panel discussion featuring Prejean, Heggie and CU-Boulder sociology chair and Professor Michael Radelet in the Grusin Music Hall at the College of Music on campus.
For ticket prices and more information about "Dead Man Walking," call (303) 492-8008 or visit .