Which makes “Dead Man Walking” an American opera in the truest sense, in that it breathes the music of this country while telling Prejean’s story in a cultural context true to her life.

In the new book, which ends where “Dead Man Walking” picks up, the sister describes her journey to the Sisters of St. Joseph — and how religious life changed after Vatican II.

So here we have Dead Man Walking recorded by Houston Grand Opera, ten years after it was first recorded by San Francisco Opera for the now-dormant Erato label. The San Francisco recording is ...

DEAD MAN WALKING: The opera repeats seven more times through Oct. 28 at the War Memorial Opera House. Tickets: $23-$165. Call (415) 864-3330 or visit www.sfopera.com .

“Dead Man Walking,” based on Sister Helen Prejean’s 1993 memoir about her experience trying to save the soul of a convicted murderer at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, ...

I’m not sure, though, that “Dead Man Walking,” the opera, is calculated to draw in new audiences as much as it is to please people already familiar with opera.

“Dead Man Walking” could very well deliver on the latter. Ivo van Hove’s new production is spare and unsparing, its action unfolding within an unadorned holding room designed by Jan ...