"As operagoers remarked during intermission on opening night, the subject matter is "intense." There is a minute and a half of silence at the end of the show when Joseph De Rocher, the convicted murderer, dies after a lethal injection. A grey-haired man in a suit was so emotional he had to leave the mezzanine. Equally memorable were the moments that made the audience laugh - unexpected at an opera about the death penalty."
""You saw the king? I can't believe it!" De Rocher exclaims when Prejean's character tells him about seeing Elvis Presley as a kid. De Rocher didn't just like Elvis, he says. He wanted to be him. If he were Elvis he wouldn't be "talking to no rock 'n' roll nun." He and Prejean sing the words "Jailhouse Rock." His death is still five hours away."
"In 1977, Sonnier was convicted of raping an 18-year-old girl before shooting her and her fiance in the back of the head, a scene rennacted at the beginning of the opera with naked actors. The night before his death, he and Prejean talked about "his mama's cooked venison" and "biological facts about animals" he found interesting. "He's not dying," Prejean said of his state of mind at the time. "He's fully alive. So you talk about life things.""
Dead Man Walking returned to the opera stage with performances through Sept. 28, revisiting the story of a condemned man and the nun who counseled him. The production contains intense material, including a minute-and-a-half of silence after Joseph De Rocher's lethal injection and a reenacted opening scene of a double murder with naked actors. The audience reacted emotionally and also found unexpected humor, such as De Rocher's Elvis fantasies and a duet of "Jailhouse Rock." Sister Helen Prejean, now 86, recalled her final conversation with Elmo Patrick Sonnier, noting his focus on everyday subjects and her observation that "He's fully alive."
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