[Aired on Friday, February 24th.] On this edition of StudioTulsa, we speak with Jake Heggie, the composer of "Dead Man Walking," which premiered in San Francisco in 2000, and has since become one of the most popular and most widely performed American operas of today (with more than 150 performances worldwide). Tulsa Opera will stage "Dead Man Walking" at the Tulsa PAC on Saturday the 25th (at 7:30pm), Friday the 2nd (at 7:30pm), and Sunday the 4th (at 2:30pm). Heggie's other works as a composer include the operas "Moby-Dick," "Three Decembers," "The End of the Affair," and "To Hell and Back," as well as more than 200 songs --- along with concerti, chamber music, choral, and orchestral works. As he tells us on today's ST, "Dead Man Walking" --- featuring a libretto (based on Sister Helen Prejean's non-fiction book of the same title) by Terrence McNally --- was the first opera Heggie ever composed, and its origins date back to the middle 1990s, when the likewise-titled, award-winning motion picture was all the rage. For more information, please go to tulsaopera.com. (Editor's note: Sister Helen appeared on StudioTulsa earlier this week.)
Rich Fisher is celebrating his 40th year of service to Public Radio Tulsa. Since 2000, he has been the general manager of Public Radio Tulsa, and previously served as the host of the public affairs program, StudioTulsa, which ran from 1992-2021. Prior to that, he served as music director, a program host and operations director for the station.