Q & A With Elise Quagliata of "Dead Man Walking"



Elise Quagliata

Mezzo-soprano Elise Quagliata sings the leading role of Sr. Helen Prejean in Union Avenue Opera's Dead Man Walking. This production marks Elise's company debut. Operatic Saint Louis recently engaged her in a Q & A session where she offers her perspective and thoughts on the piece.

What was your particular process in inhabiting the role of Sr. Helen Prejean?

I started by researching Helen. She's all about transparency...transparency of her mission and of herself. I followed the links on her site to death penalty info sites and found some on my own, as well. I read all the statistics I could get my hands on. It was hard. The stats are jarring and disturbing. Her book gives enormous insight into what she calls this "secret ritual" of capital punishment. But there are also a lot of unbiased sites that give history and statistical analysis about the death penalty. This prepped me in understanding why this is so important to her. I empathized and understood her mission. It's most compelling to me because she's so focused on the humanity. I ask myself constantly if I would be able to do this: find love in my heart for someone who did something so brutal. I had to understand how she was able to do that before I could move forward and truly inhabit that moment of forgiveness.

Why do you believe the character of Sr. Helen takes a huge leap by meeting with Joseph De Rocher in person despite such strong warnings from Sr. Rose and the resulting frustration and animosity from the parents of De Rocher's victims? Are her choices possibly born of fascination with danger or risk?

Having spoken to Sister Helen the other day, she seems like an exceptionally focused person. She believes in her mission wholeheartedly, and it seems as though very little would get in her way. She pushes through in the opera because she's a self-proclaimed "hothead", as she states in the aria, a bit of a bull in a china shop, as it were, but also because she's invested. She's invested with this relationship she cultivated through letters and perhaps there were some promises to visit, etc. When he finally does ask her to go, she has to because she gave her word. Helen is a DO-er. I think she THINKS after. And she certainly did during this first experience. There was no precedent set. She couldn't do everything correctly right out of the gate. There has to be a learning curve with a situation as delicate as juggling an inmate, parents of victims, her friends...she has a lot of balls in the air. And I believe she was able to figure out how to do this process correctly only after there were some feelings hurt the first time.

Are there moments in the opera that you have found difficulty finding your way into as an actor?

The most challenging moment for me was the confession scene. How could I hear his confession and then give him the gift of forgiveness? I'm an actor who feels everything, and I want the audience to feel the honesty with which I perform everything I sing. I struggled making the moment she forgives him real because I couldn't understand how she found that genuine compassion. Elise Quagliata is not yet so enlightened. But I kept reading about her, trying to understand her mission, and finally I spoke with her. This helped enormously. Also with Tim's help, a lot of repetition and introspection, I feel we got there. I honestly do forgive him in that scene now.

Elise Quagliata & Marlissa Hudson

Conversely, are there any moments in which you immediately knew what you wanted to do?

The ease and beauty of Helen and Rose's relationship was simpler for me. Rose is a beautifully written foil to Helen's impetuousness. I understood that relationship well. I am a bit like Helen in my "full steam ahead" attitude. I have been called stubborn in my day (just ask my husband!) I have friends like Rose who keep me grounded and mindful. I love and enjoy this relationship being played out on stage. Rose's protectiveness and the unconditional love she shows Helen really gives Helen the strength to carry on with Joe until the end.

What are the most affecting moments in the opera for you?

Anytime Joe shows his vulnerability. Anytime we see the human Joe is. It's easy to stick this label on him--and it's not INcorrect to do so: RAPIST, MURDERER. But all Helen sees is the human. "Strip away the ego and all you're left with is the purest essence...that's the human I wanted to save."--This is something I wrote down from our most recent conversation. In the opera, Joe gives Helen a lot to work with. He often cracks open to reveal his pulpy, vulnerable self. These moments are most affecting for me: the Elvis moment they share, the confession, and of course his apology to the parents.

Jake Heggie's music is at times tonal yet modernistic, with seemingly constant exposition in its musical development rather than repetition heard so often in the standard opera repertoire. What have you found to be the strengths of this score, especially in its interplay with the libretto?

This music is brilliant because each motif or theme has a personality, character or action associated with it. It comes with connotation. The intense 5/8 represents the crime, but the 6/8, which harmonically resembles the crime, seems to represent the institution of jail and those affiliated with it. When these themes interplay and are transformed, it's similar to dynamic character transformation. Nothing is static, musically or textually. That's the genius of the piece. As a listener, you experience the journey with us not only through our words, but also through the harmonic and thematic transformations. McNally's libretto is smart, smart, smart. Obviously, he's a brilliant writer. The libretto and Heggie's music beautifully complement each other.

Jordan Shanahan & Elise Quagliata

Sr. Helen Prejean is an outspoken voice against capital punishment; the character in the opera reflects this viewpoint. Do you believe that the opera makes any sort of statement about or against the death penalty?

The opera forces the audience to examine the question. There's distance in a book or a movie; you don't necessarily have that visceral experience you get in the theater. Seeing this in person, hearing the screams, the tears, feeling that intensity, forces the audience to examine their own feelings about the issue. As Sister Helen said to me, "I am a window pane into a secret ritual." It's up to the audience whether they want to peer in and learn more.

What can you say to convince someone who might be on the fence about attending Dead Man Walking?

Art is entertainment, but art also pushes boundaries. Come see an historical work that is beautifully staged, wonderfully sung and engages the heart and mind.

Visit EliseQuagliata.com for more information on her upcoming career. All images ©Ron Lindsey, 2011.

Dead Man Walking opens tonight. The production runs August 19, 20, 26 & 27. All performances begin at 8pm and take place at Union Avenue Christian Church located at 733 N. Union Blvd in St. Louis. Sung in English with projected English supertitles. Tickets range $30-52. Student Rush Tickets are $15 with valid Student ID (cash only) for any remaining seats available 15 minutes before curtain. To purchase Tickets or find more information about Union Avenue Opera, please call 314.361.2881 or visit http://www.unionavenueopera.org/