Review: Met Opera Season Opens with ‘Dead Man Walking’

We see their bond building a bit, and thanks to DiDonato, McKinney and Van Hove, it takes its toll, as Des Rocher’s sympathetic mother and the victims’ angry parents add some outside pressure to the central pair.

But there’s no real urgency to the score, no sense of profound mutual revelation or cat-and-mouse surprise or crisis of faith, even with the passage of time and the constraints of prison—the same elements that gave, say, “The Silence of Modernity.” “Lambs” is a sexy and perverted romance stakes.

Instead, there is only a steady, swelling tenderness, which suits Heggie’s pure lyricism. He invented a beautiful hymn that became Sister Helen’s leitmotif. For a comprehensive suite that brings together Joseph’s mother and the victims’ families, he turns to neo-Baroque strings, richly arranged to balance emotion and clarity. If the transitions and climaxes in Heiji’s scene tend to be loud, he gives the voices plenty of room to soar.

DiDonato, the highlight of The Met’s “Hours” series last season as the soft-toned Virginia Woolf, manages the same self-magnetism here, although Sister Helen’s music – unlike Woolf’s – pushes her lean, eloquent mezzo-soprano into jazz. High register, thin and narrow.

Her style is pure, as is McKinney’s – and his powerful, warm voice makes De Rocher’s humanity clear from the start. Among a busy and excellent supporting cast, Susan Graham, who created the role of Sister Helen, returns as the beautifully dignified Madame des Rochers. (What made matters even more poignant was that Frederica von Stade, who played the mother in 2000, was in the audience Tuesday, as was real-life sister Helene, now 84.)