The story - well known from the book, stage play and multi-award-winning film versions made of it - that Jake Heggie used for his first opera is based on actual events around the relationship between Sister Helen Prejean, who is fighting to abolish the death penalty, and the murderer awaiting execution on death row. The high-impact opera has toured the world since its 2000 premiere and now will be staged at the Met, with Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting and Joyce DiDonato in the role of the Catholic nun who was portrayed in the film by Susan Sarandon.
Like the story, the opera itself may already be familiar to the Hungarian audience, as it was also staged in Budapest in 2020, so we can already know from this that Heggie is a true opera composer with a strong dramatic sense, one who has created a contemporary classic in collaboration with his Tony and Emmy award-winning librettist Terrence McNally. The opera, an unsettling work that challenges viewers to examine their positions, had its New York premiere delayed by the pandemic and will ...now be staged by Belgian director Ivo van Hove - who will also be making his Met debut with Don Giovanni during the 2022/23 season - for audiences both inside the theatre and around the globe. At the side of Joyce DiDonato, the jewel of the production, we will find one of the most skilled performers of the role of the murderer forced to face his crime and his punishment: the physically and vocally imposing bass-baritone Ryan McKinny. In two smaller but still crucial roles, we will get to see and hear both Latonia Moore, whose work in several American operas has already gained her many admirers, and American national treasure Susan Graham, who sang Sister Helen at the San Francisco world premiere of Dead Man Walking.
From the 2023/24 season, we will be providing surtitles for foreign-language operas exclusively in Hungarian.
The ‘Metropolitan Opera Live in HD' transmissions have been made possible through the cooperation of our partner, liveincinema.eu s.r.o.
Presented by: Müpa Budapest
Ticket information
You may purchase tickets online and in person for this performance using a Müpa Budapest gift voucher or by OTP, K&H or MBH SZÉP cards. If you purchase the tickets in person, then we also accept Edenred Gift Vouchers, and Edenred gift cards (Benefit and Family cards) as well as the culture subaccount allowance on OTP Cafeteria cards.
Parking information
We wish to inform you that in the event that Müpa Budapest's underground garage and outdoor car park are operating at full capacity, it is advisable to plan for increased waiting times when you arrive. In order to avoid this, we recommend that you depart for our events in time, so that you you can find the ideal parking spot quickly and smoothly and arrive for our performance in comfort. The Müpa Budapest underground garage gates will be operated by an automatic number plate recognition system. Parking is free of charge for visitors with tickets to any of our paid performances on that given day. The detailed parking policy of Müpa Budapest is available here.
Safe ticket purchase
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