Tue, 10/17/2023 - 09:01 am

Christina Belknsp

Experience the Met Live in HD production of “Dead Man Walking” at 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 21 at 1 p.m. Photo courtesy of: The Metropolitan Opera

“A deeply human story about truth, forgiveness, and the possibility of redemption … I found myself overcome by the universal redemptive hope at the core of the opera.”-America Magazine.

The Met Live in HD, high-definition broadcasts live from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, opens its 2023–24 season with Jake Heggie’s masterpiece “Dead Man Walking” playing at Damariscotta’s historic Lincoln Theater Saturday, Oct. 21, at 1 p.m. The first of nine operas to be broadcast Live in HD this season, “Dead Man Walking” is a new production, Met Premiere, and the most widely performed new opera of the last two decades.

Based on Sister Helen Prejean’s memoir, which also inspired the 1995 Oscar-winning film, ”Dead Man Walking,” is the story of her fight for the soul of a condemned murderer on death row. With a brilliant libretto by the late Tony and Emmy Award winner Terrence McNally, and the beautiful and poignant music of American composer Jake Heggie, this haunting presentation matches the high drama of its subject.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Met’s Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director and Tony Award–winning director Ivo van Hove, lead a star-studded cast including Grammy Award–winning mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato as Sister Helen; bass-baritone Ryan McKinny as death-row inmate Joseph De Rocher; soprano Latonia Moore as Sister Rose; and mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, who originated the role of Sister Helen in the opera’s 2000 premiere, as De Rocher’s mother. Pulitzer Prize winner Rhiannon Giddens will serve as the transmission host, providing exclusive behind-the-scenes access and lead interviews with the cast and creative team during intermission. The live in HD transmission will also include an intermission feature filmed at Sing Sing Correctional Facility. Led by Sister Helen and DiDonato and in association with Carnegie Hall’s Musical Connections program, members of the opera’s cast and music staff, together with some of the resident men at Sing Sing, rehearsed and presented an abridged concert version of “Dead Man Walking” at the correctional facility.

Lincoln Theater is proud to present the 2023-24 season of The Met Live in HD beginning with “Dead Man Walking” Oct. 21 at 1pm. Tickets: $25 adults, $23 members, and $5 for youth 18 and under. Season subscriptions (all nine operas at 10% off the ticket price) are available in advance online or at the door beginning 30 minutes before showtime. Information on the entire season is available on the theater’s website at www.LincolnTheater.net by visiting On Screen and Met Live in HD from the homepage menu, or by contacting the theater office at info@LincolnTheater.net or 563-3424.

Lincoln Theater is located at 2 Theater St. in downtown Damariscotta.