SPARSELY attended on opening night, this premiere of Dead Man Walking by Welsh National Opera deserved a full house.

Its power and intensity is overwhelming but it’s the visceral and staunchly anti-capital punishment message that is truly moving.

Like the Hollywood film of the same title, the opera is based on the book by Sister Helen Preplan. It was commissioned by San Francisco Opera in 1997 and the Jake Veggie score and Terrence McNally libretto is a tour de force.

Led by Lucia Ciceronian as Sister Helen and Morgan Smith as convicted killer Joseph De Roche, the whole ensemble are stunning.  

That De Roche is guilty of murder and rape is undeniable but the scenes where Sister Helen tries to persuade him to acknowledge his guilt bristle with tension and compassion.

With the orchestra on stage, the pit is transformed into the cells to which De Roche returns after his meetings with his spiritual adviser. Above and behind the orchestra is the mighty WNO chorus —death-row prisoners in their cells.

Enhancing the production’s power is Anne Mason’s portrayal of the killer’s mother, whose simple love for her son, despite his crime, shines through.

The contradiction at the heart of US Christianity and its support for the death penalty is laid bare as Sister Helen is berated by the two young victims’ parents at the parole-board meeting confirming his death by lethal injection.

But it is the denouement, where De Rocher admits his guilt to Sister Helen and then is strapped to a board for the lethal injection, where the real power of this opera lies.

There’s no attempt to justify the state-sponsored murder, which wrings every last ounce of emotion from the audience, in what’s an epic production of an opera thematically treading a fine line between religious conviction and revenge.

It’s part of WNO Freedom season of operas focusing on injustice and human rights, which  continues until June 22.

Box office: wno.org