‘Raise the questions. Don’t provide the answers’: composer Jake Heggie on 25 years of Dead Man Walking

As his groundbreaking opera about the death penalty comes to the UK, Heggie reflects on its enduring power and the story’s relevance in an age of division

‘But you’re so young!” Julie Andrews exclaimed on opening night of Dead Man Walking, 25 years ago at the San Francisco Opera. I had pushed my way to her through the crowded lobby to introduce myself as the composer of the opera, fearful it would be my only chance to meet my first goddess. My first singing nun.

Was I that young? It was 7 October 2000. I was 39 and this was my first opera, my long-dreamed-of “big break”. Maybe I was naive, but I felt young and the world felt full of possibility that night. Much different from the world today.