Graham is a committed champion of Dead Man Walking. Racette tackles both with aplomb, delivering a powerhouse performance that is as beautiful to listen to as it is captivating to watch. Onstage for virtually the entire length of the opera, the role of Sister Helen is notoriously difficult in terms of acting and vocal stamina. Moreover, even with a put-on twang, Racette’s endlessly sparkly tone and pitch-perfect diction rendered the supertitles wholly superfluous. Racette’s earnest portrayal was deeply moving and crucially believable. With these performances, the exquisite Patricia Racette makes her role debut as Sister Helen. Dead Man Walking, Lyric Opera of Chicago, 2019. Racette’s endlessly sparkly tone and pitch-perfect diction rendered the supertitles wholly superfluous. While Dead Man Walking also exists as a play and a movie, the opera is a unique adaptation that carefully eschews a simplified portrait of Sister Helen in favor of a powerful work of theater that illuminates and makes personal the myriad attitudes and viewpoints on all sides of the death penalty debate. ![]() ![]() Since the book’s release in 1993, Sister Helen has become the nation’s leading advocate for the abolishment of the death penalty. The opera, with music by Jake Heggie and libretto by playwright Terrance McNally, is a dramatization of scenes from Sister Helen Prejean’s memoir of the same name. Nearly two decades after its world premiere, Dead Man Walking has landed in Chicago. Stellar performances from a star cast in Chicago's Dead Man Walking Review Hannah De Priest Nov 5, 2019
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