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San Francisco Chronicle Monday, October 9, 2000 `Walking' Tall Opera's `Dead Man' is a masterpiece of music, words and emotions By Joshua Kosman, Chronicle Music Critic That Heggie, 39, can write a beautiful melody and embellish it with lush tonal harmonies derived from Strauss and Debussy was never in doubt. That much was evident from the profusion of song cycles he has created for San Francisco singers over the past few years. What remained untested was his ability to press those lyrical gifts into service in the context of a full-scale opera. Yet that is the most remarkable aspect of the ``Dead Man'' score: how unerringly he connects individual moments into a single consistent and expressive sound world. The most obvious unifying element is a spiritual hymn (``He will gather us around'') that Sister Helen comes back to repeatedly as a moral guidepost and that returns again and again (perhaps once or twice too often) in both the surface and the subtext of the score. But other, more elusive techniques are at work as well. Heggie is a master at sketching a character with a few quick strokes of music -- the jaunty, self-assured strut of a smug prison warden, for instance, or the unlettered honesty of de Rocher's grief-stricken (and guilt-ridden) mother. And all of these elements are fused into a score marked by gorgeous flights of lyrical breadth, punchy rhythmic by-play and orchestration that is full of surprises and idiosyncratic choices. This isn't to say that Heggie's score will suit all tastes. It is certain to dismay the apostles of novelty and progress, those for whom art must be either wholly new or worthless. The strength of this composer's music, as always, lies not in breaking new ground but rather in deploying well-known resources with new skill. All the chords in ``Dead Man'' are essentially familiar, as are the melodic contours and the formal outlines of aria, ensemble and recitative; what's thrilling is the communicative splendor that Heggie brings to them. In this version, the convict seems more human from the outset than in Sean Penn's fierce cinematic portrayal; lyrical music makes that inevitable. Yet Packard, singing with ferocious power and insistence, still managed to keep enough in reserve to make his final transformation telling. In some ways the most spectacular performance, though, came from Frederica von Stade, in a hauntingly direct portrait of Mrs. de Rocher. Her simple plea to the Pardon Commission (``Don't kill my Joe'') begins as unadorned recitative, then grows steadily in rhetorical force, and von Stade -- inhabiting the role with unnerving depth and transparency -- made this scene an emotional highlight. Saturday's premiere had all the buzz of a major event. The curtain even went up a few minutes late as ushers struggled to persuade a star-spotting knot of patrons to take their seats. Among the celebrities were Tim Robbins, Penn and Susan Sarandon (the writer-director, co-star and Oscar-winning leading lady of the film version), director Garry Marshall, Robin and Marsha Williams, Kristen Johnston, Woody Harrelson and even Julie Andrews, on hand to represent singing nuns everywhere. Only one thing is lacking to make ``Dead Man Walking'' a complete success, and that is some means of making it available to a wider audience. Video cameras were in place Saturday, but they were there for a PBS documentary, to be aired next year, on the making of the opera -- not for a telecast of the work itself. Plans are afoot for a live audio recording on the Erato label, but for now audiences will have to make the trek to the Opera House in person to fully experience this opera in all its majesty.
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