Sister Helen Prejean

By Voice staff

The Oakland East Bay Symphony will feature four poems based on the meditations of Sister Helen Prejean, set to music by Bay Area composer Jake Heggie, during its May 14 and May 16 performances at Oakland’s Paramount Theatre.

Heggie had asked Sister Prejean, author of “Dead Man Walking,” for some reflections on her spiritual journey after his first opera, “Dead Man Walking,” based on her best-selling book, premiered with the San Francisco Opera in October 2000.

She sent him six meditations from which he developed the text and music for four songs. The song cycle, “The Deepest Desire: Four Meditations on Love,” pre-miered in 2002.

Mezzoso-prano Layna Chianakas will sing the piece for the Oakland East Bay Symphony performances.

Heggie has also used texts by Sister Prejean for his choral piece, “Seeking Higher Ground,” a reflection on Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath in New Orleans.

In program notes for “The Deepest Desire,” Heggie tells of driving Sister Prejean to the airport and asking her about her spirituality. “She answered that at one point in her life she’d had to throw away all the ‘stuff she’d been told she needs, the ‘stuff’ she’d been told she must have, must pursue, must obtain. She went to the deepest waters of her being, and it was there she found the core of her spirituality: the deepest desire of her heart.”

Layna Chianakas

Sister Prejean, a member of the Congregation of St. Joseph, began her prison ministry in 1981 when she dedicated her life to the poor of New Orleans. While living in the St. Thomas housing project, she became pen pals with Patrick Sonnier, the convicted killer of two teenagers, sentenced to die in the electric chair of Louisiana’s Angola State Prison.

Upon Sonnier’s request, she repeatedly visited him as his spiritual advisor. She turned her experiences into a book that was nominated for a 1993 Pulitzer Prize. “Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States” was number one on the New York Times Best Seller List for 31 weeks. It also was an international best seller and has been translated into 10 languages.

The book was developed into a major motion picture starring Susan Sarandon as Sister Prejean and Sean Penn as a death row inmate. The movie received four Oscar nominations including Tim Robbins for Best Director, Sean Penn for Best Actor, Susan Sarandon for Best Actress, and Bruce Springsteen’s “Dead Man Walking” for Best Song. Susan Sarandon won the award for Best Actress.

When Heggie’s opera “Dead Man Walking” premiered with San Francisco Opera, renowned soprano Frederica von Stade, a member of St. Joseph Basilica Parish in Alameda, played the role of the condemned man’s mother.

In “The Deepest Desire” Heggie has written the vocal line as Sister Prejean’s recounting of her vocation journey — the call, her struggle and her acceptance. The two musical instruments, the flute and piano, express the mystery of her call as well as her emotional journey to acceptance.

Along with Heggie’s song cycle, the Oakland East Bay Symphony will perform Beethoven’s No. 9 “Choral, best known as Ode to Joy with the Oakland Symphony Chorus. Performances are at 8 p.m. on May 14 and 2 p.m. on May 16.

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