Opera Sets Stage for Its Life or Death Issue

Opera Pacific presaged its next production, “Dead Man Walking,” with a sober symposium on the death penalty Saturday at the Irvine Barclay Theatre on the UC Irvine campus. About 250 people, mostly Opera Pacific subscribers, attended the event sponsored by the Santa Ana-based opera house and the University of California Bren Fellows Program.

The piece, based on the Pulitzer-nominated book by Sister Helen Prejean, tells of a death row inmate’s journey to redemption before being executed. The book inspired a 1995 movie starring Susan Sarandon as Prejean, and Sean Penn as the condemned man whom Prejean befriends.

Prejean, who wrote about her encounters with death row inmates in Louisiana, advocates abolishing capital punishment.

The opera version of the book debuted in San Francisco two years ago to critical acclaim. The local production will open at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa on April 16.

In contrast to the emotional movie and the opera, Saturday’s symposium covered the complex moral and legal issues surrounding capital punishment. Speeches by proponents and critics of the death penalty were punctuated by performances by the cast of “Dead Man Walking.”

Guest speaker Judge Alex Kozinski, of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, presented familiar arguments for the death penalty, saying it brings a “severe and final punishment” for the most dangerous criminals. He was countered by Hugo Adam Bedau, a Tufts University philosophy professor, who argued that less harsh punishment can protect society. If harsh punishments are stronger deterrents to crime, Bedau said, “you could argue that adding torture before putting someone to death might be a stronger deterrent.”

For David Linnig of Laguna Beach, hearing experts gave him issues to consider, he said, but he remains strongly opposed to the death penalty.

“I haven’t been convinced yet,” Linnig, 59, said. “I think most people coming here will leave today with the same position they came with and a little more understanding of the other side. In the end, that’s all you can hope for.”