Next month, Susan Graham returns to Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally’s Dead Man Walking with Washington National Opera’s revival of the modern operatic classic, singing a new role in a work she helped to create.

When the American mezzo-soprano created the role of Sister Helen Prejean in the work’s world premiere at San Francisco Opera in 2000, the Los Angeles Times reported that she “brought not just the ravishing beauty of her mezzo-soprano to Sister Helen but seemed to glow onstage.”

In WNO’s new production helmed by Francesca Zambello, Susan makes her role debut as Mrs. De Rocher. She stars opposite Kate Lindsey as Sister Helen Prejean, as well as Michael Mayes as Joseph De Rocher, Jacqueline Echols as Sister Rose, and Wayne Tigges as Owen Hart.

Michael Christie conducts performances, which take place on February 25 and 27, and March 3, 5, 8, and 11 at the Kennedy Center Opera House. Click here for more information.