Letter to Editor | ‘Dead Man Walking’ opera was enormously uplifting

||| FROM RIVER MALCOLM |||

The filmed version of Metropolitan Opera’s Dead Man Walking (shown at Orcas Center this past Tuesday at noon) was a powerful experience, both in terms of immediate emotional impact and in terms of appreciation for the artistry and complex collaboration between artists involved in the music composition and performance, staging, stage design, singing, choreography, acting, etc.

In a time when it is so easy to despair about our human capacity for cooperation and peacemaking, this huge celebration of human creativity and cooperation was enormously uplifting. The opera itself explores vividly the human capacity for cruelty and destruction and also for love and reparation. Amazing and beautiful. I want to say thank you with all my heart to the anonymous donors who make this series available on our island.

Next Tuesday at noon, we have another equally astonishing opportunity when the opera X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X will be shown. I have read Malcolm’s autobiography and am reading two more recent biographies, as well as having viewed the Spike Lee film. I find that seeing a story refracted through the viewpoints of a variety of storytellers and a variety of mediums is an especially rich and exciting experience. (I also reread Dead Man Walking and watched that movie before seeing the opera).

For anyone who has the time and energy and inclination to do likewise, I wish I could do a whole lot of cheerleader leaps into the air or set off fireworks or something equally compelling, to encourage you to do so. We are so lucky to have access to these operas at Orcas Center. They are a healing gift at a time when the world offers us lots of daunting challenges and we have a great need for healing gifts.