Dead Man Walking is at the Guildhall School

IF, like Arts Council England in its blinkered wisdom, you think opera is a spent force and wonder where the Carmens, Figaros and Traviatas of today are being written, there’s a simple answer. They’re most likely being written in America – it’s just that not so many of them make it over here, so we don’t notice.

Next week, though, one of the most talked about new American operas finally (it’s taken a while) gets a London staging. And though only a student production at the Guildhall School (where, I should add, they often do things brilliantly), Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking is something that needs to be seen.

Based on a true story, it follows the intense spiritual and personal relationship between a nun and the death-row convict she supports as he awaits execution. And spoiler alert: the ending isn’t happy. But it’s powerful, in a gut-wrenching way. The music is accessible. And musically the piece is far superior to Heggie’s other opera, It’s a Wonderful Life, which played rather feebly at ENO over Christmas – so don’t pre-judge by that if you saw it.

Dead Man Walking runs Feb 27-Mar 6 at the Guildhall’s Silk Street Theatre in the Barbican. An important event. Details: gsmd.ac.uk

• Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto is a very different operatic proposition: a serious piece with comic possibilities in the way it depicts Julius Caesar’s triumphs, not just (militarily) in Egypt but (personally) over the alluring Cleopatra. One of the composer’s best-loved stage works, with a tortuous plot but dazzling arias, it comes to the Hackney Empire on Feb 25 as part of English Touring Opera’s spring tour. A predictable joy, done with a period instrument orchestra. hackneyempire.co.uk

• Talking of dazzle and allurement, Barbara Hannigan qualifies on both counts. Having found fame as a singer, she found equal fame as a conductor. And on Mar 2 she takes to the podium with the London Symphony Orchestra in a Barbican concert that features the Berg Violin Concerto as well as a little-known but affecting piece for voice and orchestra called Lonely Child by Canadian composer Claude Vivier. barbican.org.uk

• Hampstead Parish Church has had serious problems of late that have shaken the place to its foundations. But its distinguished musical life survives. And this Saturday there’s a reprise of happier times when a former organist returns for a concert – albeit in a different capacity to that of accompanying the Sunday morning Mass.

James Sherlock left his Hampstead job some years ago to study in Finland with the legendary conducting guru Jorma Panula. Since then, his career has flourished, working at the highest level with choirs and orchestras across the Nordic territories. And no less significant, he’s got married – to one of the leading young sopranos at the Royal Danish Opera, Sofie Elkjaer Jensen. On Feb 25, he accompanies his wife in recital at the church that sounds both Nordic and attractive: songs by Grieg and Sibelius. 7.30pm start. Tickets on the door or in advance from fom.org.uk