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| Prisoner’s death inspires new opera |
| By bangordailynews.com - Abigail Curtis |
| Published: 12/20/2011 |
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BELFAST, Maine — When Maine State Prison inmate Victor Valdez died in custody in November 2009, it sparked an outcry among prisoner and human rights advocates. They believed the frail, sickly 52-year-old prisoner from the Dominican Republic may have been badly beaten by guards before his death. The fact that he was cremated soon after without having an autopsy intensified the questions, and advocates called for more transparency from the Maine Department of Corrections as well as further investigation into the circumstances around Valdez’s demise. And although the Maine Attorney General’s Office concluded the following year that his death was brought on by his serious medical conditions and was not a homicide, it did lead to a new state law requiring the state medical examiner to determine whether or not an autopsy is needed when prisoners die in state custody. Valdez’s death also has led to art. George Swanson, a 78-year-old Episcopal priest and musician from the village of Manset on Mount Desert Island, is writing a folk opera titled “Natural Causes Killed Victor.” In it, a cast of nine singers use music to explore what happened that day at Maine State Prison. It is allegorical, Swanson said, adding that some early listeners have told him they see that Valdez’s death is akin to the passion and death of Christ. “The death of Victor Valdez is a really natural opera, for a lot of reasons,” he said. “My hope is it will reach people’s hearts and change our godawful system of prisons in this country,” Swanson said. Judy Plummer, the public affairs coordinator for the Maine Department of Corrections, said Monday that she had no comments about the opera or about the Valdez case. “It is my hope that he is fair in his storytelling,” she said of Swanson. “The facts were the facts, as far as what was found in regards to the investigation of [Valdez’s] death.” The opera is set in a church, and will have its debut performance this spring at St. Saviour’s Episcopal Church in Bar Harbor. Auditions will take place in February for roles that include Valdez, a reporter, the governor, the commissioner of the Department of Corrections, the prison warden and an advocate. Some characters are written to be more two-dimensional, or “cardboard cut-outs,” Swanson said. The character Victor Valdez is a cipher at the heart of the opera. The only words he is heard to have spoken when the guards allegedly beat him, Swanson said, is “What did I do?” That became a song in the opera. And when the operatic Valdez dies on the altar steps, he is singing a song in Spanish that translates to “Holy God, holy and mighty, holy immortal one, have mercy on us.” In life, Valdez didn’t speak much English and was hard of hearing, which other inmates said caused him to not understand a guard’s instruction to go back to his cell from the prison day room during a temporary lock down. The inmates wrote a total of seven letters to the Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition about their fears for Valdez’s safety and then about his death. They wrote that the guards used pepper spray on him and that he was essentially dragged to the prison’s Special Management Unit or SMU, which is similar to solitary confinement. Read More. |
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