Death, Faith, and Redemption: Heggie’s Dead Man Walking

Aria Code

WQXR & The Metropolitan Opera

Music Interviews, Music Commentary, Aria, Music, Arts, Metropolitan, Performing Arts, Code, Wqxr, Opera, Wnyc, Studios

4.8 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 4 October 2023

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The true story of a man on death row and the nun who accompanied him to the execution chamber.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I looked at his face and I thought if you murdered somebody, you had a mean face, I couldn't
0:09.8	believe how human his face was.
0:14.6	From WQXR and the Metropolitan Opera, this is Arya Code, back after a long break.
0:21.1	I'm Rianne Gibbons.
0:22.8	We see the very worst of humankind and human nature and then immediately we're surrounded
0:28.0	by youth and optimism and joy.
0:31.3	Every episode we shine a spotlight on a single Arya so we can see it from every angle.
0:36.4	Today it's this journey from one of the great American operas, Dead Man Walking by Jake
0:41.9	Hagee.
0:43.4	From the very beginning the clock is ticking towards the inevitable outcome.
0:48.1	The clock is ticking towards the execution.
0:58.2	My friends, it has been forever and I don't know about you but these days I feel like
1:05.0	every passing year is basically a whole lifetime.
1:09.0	Since we were all asked together, I've been feeding my opera habit in an unusual way by
1:13.7	following the opera Omar around the country.
1:17.0	I wrote Omar with composer Michael Abels and getting to see each different cast and
1:22.8	audience respond to the incredible story of Omar Abensei, sold at the age of 37 from
1:29.4	his homeland of Senegal and ending up enslaved for over 50 years in North Carolina.
1:35.3	It has been a complete honor.
1:37.4	And as strange as it was to be in the audience rather than up on stage, it's cinched for
1:42.8	me the importance of opera as a contemporary art form.
1:47.7	I know you agree, because you're here, listening to a show that's all about the power of
	...

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