Few American operas have had as immediate and lasting an impact as Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally’s Dead Man Walking, hailed at its 2000 premiere in San Francisco as “a watershed moment in contemporary American Opera” (USA Today). It has since been produced in more than 20 cities in nine countries, and tells the gripping story of Sister Helen Prejean and her work as spiritual advisor to a Louisiana death row inmate. The course will look in depth at the roots of the opera and its creators, including the real-life Sister Helen, and compare her real life persona to her depiction in the famous film based on her book of the same name, while tracing the creative process from risky idea to artistic triumph. Participants will study the stirring score in detail, learning how it creates riveting drama by going beyond politics and legal wrangling to get at the emotional core of the human dilemma posed by the death penalty.

About Your Instructor — Clifford (Kip) Cranna
Clifford (Kip) Cranna, director of musical administration at San Francisco Opera, where he manages the company's commissions, which include Dead Man Walking. He has been with the company since 1979. Cranna holds a B.A. in choral conducting from the University of North Dakota and a Ph.D. in musicology from Stanford University. For many years he was program editor and lecturer for the Carmel Bach Festival. He lectures and writes frequently on music and teaches at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He has appeared on the San Francisco Opera radio broadcasts and the Opera Guild’s “Insight” panels. In 2008 he was awarded the San Francisco Opera Medal, the Company’s highest honor.

When Benjamin Britten needed an opera to reopen the refurbished Jubilee Hall in Aldeburgh in June 1960, he chose A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a play he had long admired, as its source. With its distinct groups of characters and its magical setting, the story offered the composer an opportunity to speak in many voices: the colorful score is by turns ethereal and direct, playful and transcendent. Presented in partnership with the Britten-Pears Foundation, this course will give special insight into Britten’s working methods, from fashioning the libretto to working with world-class artists to produce some of the 20th century’s most important operas in a small village on the North Sea. The course will also include a detailed musical analysis and interviews with contemporary creative and performing artists.

About Your Instructor — Kelley Rourke
Kelley Rourke is the dramaturg at Glimmerglass Opera, where she has been on staff since 1994. She has written English adaptations of several operas, including Sir Jonathan Miller’s recent production of The Elixir of Love for English National Opera (2010); Orpheus in the Underworld for Glimmerglass Opera (2007); and The Magic Flute (2005) and The Abduction from the Seraglio (2004), both for the In Series (Washington, DC). She has created supertitles for more than 50 operas, which have appeared at such companies as the Metropolitan Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and New York City Opera, among others. Rourke has held various positions at OPERA America since 1998, and is founding editor of the organization’s magazine. She is program annotator for the Vocal Arts Society and she serves on the board of the Cherry Valley Community Facilities Corporation, an arts and education center in Otsego County, NY. Rourke holds degrees in piano performance and arts management.