MOBY-DICK (2010)

ABOUT THE OPERA

Moby-Dick (2010) is an opera in two acts with a libretto by Gene Scheer based on the great American novel by Herman Melville. Set in 1820, it tells the story of Ahab, captain of the ill-fated whaleship Pequod, and the crew he commands. Having lost one of his legs to the white whale called Moby Dick, Captain Ahab is obsessed with finding and destroying him at any cost. Only the ship’s first mate, Starbuck, sees the deadly implications of Ahab’s obsession.
 

 
Moby-Dick was commissioned by the Dallas Opera, San Francisco Opera, Calgary Opera, San Diego Opera and the State Opera of South Australia. It received its highly acclaimed world premiere on April 30, 2010 at the Winspear Opera House in Dallas, TX as part of the inaugural season in that house. Conducted by Patrick Summers and directed by Leonard Foglia, the iconic production featured sets by Robert Brill, projections by Elaine McCarthy, lighting by Donald Holder and costumes by Jane Greenwood. The cast included tenor Ben Heppner (Ahab), baritone Morgan Smith (Starbuck), tenor Stephen Costello (Greenhorn), bass-baritone Jonathan Lemalu (Queequeg), soprano Talise Trevigne (Pip), baritone Robert Orth (Stubb), and tenor Matthew O’Neill (Flask).
 

The opera has seven principal roles, four smaller roles and men’s chorus. The orchestra includes 3 flutes, 3 oboes, 3 clarinets, 3 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 2 trombones, 1 bass trombone, timpani, 3 percussion, harp and strings.
 

The 2012 production of Moby-Dick at San Francisco Opera was featured on Great Performances’ 40th Season, telecast nationally in 2013 and subsequently released on DVD (EuroArts). That same year, Heggie & Scheer’s Moby-Dick: A Grand Opera for the 21st Century, a book by Robert Wallace, with photos by Karen Almond, about the making of the opera was published by UNT Press.
 

Moby-Dick received its East Coast premiere in February 2014 at the John F Kennedy Center for the Arts in Washington, DC, produced by the Washington National Opera.

 

MOBY-DICK PREVIEW FROM SAN FRANCISCO OPERA

 

 

 

ORCHESTRATION: 3 flutes (one doubles piccolo), 3 oboes (one doubles English Horn), 3 clarinets (one doubles bass clarinet), 3 bassoons (one doubles contrabassoon), 4 horns in F, 3 trumpets in C, 2 trombones, 1 bass trombone, 2 percussion, 1 timpani, harp, strings

 

PRODUCTION COMPANIES

A list of companies who have performed or scheduled future performances of the opera follows:

 

 1. The Dallas Opera (Apr 2010)
 2. State Opera of South Australia (Aug/Sept 2011)
 3. Calgary Opera (Jan 2012)
 4. San Diego Opera (Feb 2012)
 5. San Francisco Opera (Oct 2012)
 6. The Washington National Opera (Feb 2014)

 

PERFORMANCES

Upcoming and Past Performances Since 2012

Add Add to Google Calendar Download iCal Mar 17, 20, 23 & 25 2018 PITTSBURGH	Moby-Dick at the Pittsburgh Opera in the new production by designer Erhard Rom, directed by Kristine Mcintyre and conducted by Antony Walker. The cast features Roger Honeywell (Ahab), Sean Panikkar (Greenhorn), Jacqueline Echols (Pip), Musa Ngqungwana (Queequeg), Malcolm McKenzie (Stubb), Eric Ferring (Flask). Other roles TBA. Four performances at Pittsburgh’s Benedum Center. More Perf. Info. Pittsburgh Opera Type: Moby-Dick
Add Add to Google Calendar Download iCal Jan 20, 22, 24, 26 & 28 2018 SALT LAKE CITY	Moby-Dick in an exciting new production at Utah Opera in Salt Lake City’s Capitol Theatre, designed by Erhard Rom and directed by Kristine McIntyre with costumes by Jessica Jahn. Joseph Mechavich conducts the Utah Symphony and Opera Chorus with a cast that features Roger Honeywell (Ahab), Joshua Dennis (Greenhorn) and David Adam Moore (Starbuck). Complete cast TBA. More Perf. Info. Utah Opera Type: Moby-Dick
Nov. 4, 6, 9, 12, 18, 20 2016 DALLAS	Moby-Dick returns to the Dallas Opera where it received its world premiere in 2010! The starry cast includes Jay Hunter Morris (Ahab), Morgan Smith (Starbuck), Stephen Costello (Greenhorn) and Musa Ngqungwana (Queequeg); Dallas Opera Music Director Emmanuel Villaume conducts; director Leonard Foglia brings his iconic production back to the Winspear Opera House with sets by Robert Brill and projections by Elaine J McCarthy The Dallas Opera Type: Moby-Dick
Oct 31, Nov 7, 15, 19, 22 & 28 2015 LOS ANGELES	Moby-Dick produced by the Los Angeles Opera at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Starring Jay Hunter Morris (Ahab), Morgan Smith (Starbuck), Joshua Guerrero (Greenhorn), Musa Ngqungwana (Queequeg), Jaqueline Echols (Pip), Malcolm MacKenzie (Stubb), Matthew O’Neill (Flask). Conducted by James Conlon, directed by Leonard Foglia, sets by Robert Brill, costumes by Jane Greenwood, projections by Elaine McCarthy. More Perf. Info. LA Opera Type: Moby-Dick
Feb 22, 25, 28; Mar 2, 5, 8 2014 WASHINGTON	Moby-Dick in its East Coast premiere at The Washington National Opera in the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Directed by Leonard Foglia, conducted by Evan Rogister; with Carl Tanner (Ahab), Stephen Costello (Greenhorn), Matthew Worth (Starbuck), Eric Green (Queequeg), Talise Trevigne (Pip). More Perf. Info. Washington National Opera Type: Moby-Dick
Nov 1 2013	Great Performances national telecast of Moby-Dick on PBS.The San Francisco Opera production features Jay Hunter Morris (Ahab), Stephen Costello (Greenhorn), Morgan Smith (Starbuck), Talise Trevigne (Pip), Jonathan Lemalu (Queequeg), Robert Orth (Stubb), Matthew O’Neill (Flask); conducted by Patrick Summers and directed by Leonard Foglia. Type: Moby-Dick
Oct 10, 13, 18, 21, 23, 26, 30* & 11/2* 2012 SAN FRANCISCO	Moby-Dick at the San Francisco Opera, featuring the original cast conducted by Patrick Summers and directed by Leonard Foglia. Ben Heppner & Jay Hunter Morris* (Ahab), Morgan Smith (Starbuck), Stephen Costello (Greenhorn), Jonathan Lemalu (Queequeg), Talise Trevigne (Pip), Robert Orth (Stubb), Matthew O’Neill (Flask). San Francisco Opera Type: Moby-Dick
Feb 18, 21, 24, 26 2012 SAN DIEGO	West Coast Premiere of Moby-Dick at San Diego Opera; Ben Heppner (Ahab), Morgan Smith (Starbuck), Jonathan Boyd (Greenhorn), Jonathan Lemalu (Queequeg), Talise Trevigne (Pip), Robert Orth (Stubb), Matthew O’Neill (Flask); Leonard Foglia, director; Joseph Mechavich, conductor San Diego Opera Type: Moby-Dick
Jan 28 - Feb 3 2012 CALGARY	Canadian premiere of Moby-Dick at Calgary Opera with Ben Heppner (Ahab), Brett Polegato (Starbuck), Colin Ainsworth (Greenhorn), Justin Welsh (Queequeg), Lisa DiMaria (Pip), Peter McGillivray (Stubb), Robert Clark (Flask); Joseph Mechavich, conductor; Leonard Foglia, director. Calgary Opera Type: Moby-Dick

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RECORDINGS+

1. A DVD of the 2012 San Francisco production of Moby-Dick is available from San Francisco Opera and Great Performances.

 

 

2. Robert K. Wallace has written Heggie and Scheer’s Moby-Dick: A Grand Opera for the Twenty-first Century so readers can experience the process by which Moby-Dick, the opera, was created and performed on stage.

 

MOBY-DICK PRODUCTION REVIEWS

ASSOCIATED PRESS, Ronald Blum (May 2010)
“MOBY-DICK IS A WHALE OF A HIT FOR COMPOSER JAKE HEGGIE”

Composer Jake Heggie achieved his goal Friday night with an achingly beautiful, magnificently sung and gorgeously staged world premiere of his Moby-Dick, the highlight of the Dallas Opera's first season at the sparkling new Winspear Opera House. The audience responded with an eight-minute standing ovation.

Just 49, Heggie has become one of the pre-eminent contemporary opera composers. His Dead Man Walking premiered at the San Francisco Opera in 2000 and is among the most successful operas premiered since the death of Benjamin Britten in 1976. Moby-Dick, based on Melville's 1851 novel, is another triumph.

Heggie is a rarity, an accessible composer whose melodic lines and sense of drama are aimed at audiences rather than academics. With librettist Gene Scheer, he has transformed Melville's sprawling novel into an active stage work.

THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, Scott Cantrell (May 2010)

Moby-Dick, the opera, is a triumph. Stunningly staged and sung, it captures the elemental forces of the sea and Captain Ahab's obsession with the great white whale that has maimed him. Scheer seamlessly tunes his own prose and poetry to Melville's. Heggie composes vocal lines that make sense vocally and illumine words and emotions.

THE NEW YORK TIMES, Steve Smith (May 2010)

…Mr. Heggie's opera was an undeniable success: The end of its maiden voyage was greeted with a sustained, rousing ovation, with shredded programs fluttering down from the highest seating level. The strongest response
was reserved for Mr. Heggie and Mr. Scheer, received at the end with a triumphal roar.

OPERA NOW, Chris Shull (May 6, 2010)

Melville's Moby-Dick has been called the Great American Novel. Jake Heggie's telling of the story is certainly a great American opera…

…a vibrant cast, headlined by Canadian star-tenor Ben Heppner, an atmospheric set enhanced by vido projections, and Heggie's sumptuous, noble score combined on May 5 for an exhilarating evening of music and theatre…

THE TORONTO STAR, William Littler (May 2010)

…probably one of the most successful new operas to reach the stage in the past quarter century.

THE WASHINGTON POST, Anne Midgette (May 2010)

Moby-Dick turned out to be one of the most satisfying new operas I've seen premiered… the opening-night crowd in Dallas broke into
spontaneous applause three times during the first half, and screamed and yelled its approval at the curtain calls. It was a wonderful and rare reminder that new opera truly can excite people if it's done right.

BEYONDCRITICISM.COM, Matthew Gurewitsch

The score is studded with vivid scenes in many modes. But the distinction of Moby-Dick lies less in its parts than in the whole. Though the action is episodic, the libretto holds a taut arc. The score holds together, too, shaped by the gravitational pull of the ties, ever-changing in the music yet ever-present. Ribbons of silken melody, played by solo winds and reeds, ripple high above, like wayward breezes. Pizzicati conjure up pinpricks of starlight on the waves. Under the baton of Patrick Summers, the score unfolded majestically, never rushed yet never meandering, the dramatic incidents clearly set off within the greater flow.

THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, Joshua Kosman (May 2010)

[Heggie & Scheer's] powerful and emotionally irresistible new work, which opened over the weekend at the Dallas Opera, doesn't shy away from the challenges presented by Melville's landmark novel. Instead, it deftly sidesteps them, drawing from the source only those things needed for the drama and using Heggie's lush, expressive music to carry the show. The result is a vibrant, compelling piece of musical theater…easily Heggie's finest creation since Dead Man Walking first put him on the map a decade ago.

Heggie's great achievement in Moby-Dick is to write melodies that are memorable without being predictable, using harmonies that are clear but flavorful. The formal dramaturgy, too, is sleek and uncluttered, unfolding in a series of crisply rounded arias, choruses and especially duets.

D MAGAZINE, Wayne Lee Gay (May 2010)

Along with a new opera, a new chapter in opera history may have opened Friday night at the Winspear Opera House.

THE WASHINGTON POST, Anne Midgette (June 27, 2010)

When it opened on April 30, Moby-Dick turned out to be the hitof the season. The audience screamed approval, and performances promptly sold out…
…Moby-Dick is about as popular as a new opera can get. Not only was it a box-office success, but before it even opened, Heggie's name also had attracted four co-producers…Therefore, this successful production will be seen again…

OPERA TODAY, Wes Blomster (May 2010)

It's glorious and it's gripping; it's grand — and it's good! Heggie — assisted by his seasoned librettist Gene Scheer — has achieved something with Moby-Dick that American opera has not experienced in a long time: they have created a work of quality that should garner itself an immediate place in the repertory of opera houses around the world.

Director Leonard Foglia worked with the hand of a sorcerer to blend projection designs by Elaine McCarthy into an overpowering and effective whole with designs by Robert Brill and lighting by Donald Holder. Never did these visual aspects threaten the primacy of Heggie's score, in which there is not one superfluous note.

Patrick Summers, Heggie's perennial collaborator, evoked magnificent playing from The Dallas Opera Orchestra in giving birth to what is obviously a modern masterpiece of music theater.

OPERA WARHORSES, William Burnett (May 2010)

Not only do I suspect that Moby-Dick will propel Heggie to the first rank of the extraordinary current crop of contemporary American opera composers, I believe that it quite possibly…will become the most popular opera written so far during our young century.

FORT WORTH RENAISSANCE, Dean Cassella (May 2010)

…reveals a composer whose depth and sophistication is growing with time, and the music world is the better for it.

CITY WALK TALK, John P. Greenan (May 2010)

Earlier this month I saw the future of opera. It is Moby-Dick at Dallas' Winspear Opera House.

WFAA-TV, Gary Cogill (May 2010)

…a massive artistic accomplishment.

THE AUSTRALIAN, Graham Strahle (Aug 29, 2011)

[Moby-Dick] is a large, epically proportioned work … the music is flawlessly beautiful, like a jewel. It is intensely lyrical, powerfully moody and superbly well paced. There are no disjunctures of style or breaks in dramatic flow; instead, Heggie has created a giant symphonic poem through which he threads the voices majestically and gloriously.

INDAILY, Greg Elliott (Aug 29, 2011)

Moby-Dick is a triumph! … a total and memorable experience. What an exciting city and time we live in that gives rise to an international collaboration that produces a modern masterpiece such as Moby-Dick.

THE ADVERTISER, Ewart Shaw (Aug 29, 2011)

… an astounding journey. The Great American Novel has become a grand new opera.

GLAM ADELAIDE, Barry Lenny (Aug 29, 2011)

The seamless combination of projections, the physical set and live action is astounding, seeming to blend opera with theatre, circus, cinema and visual art into a multimedia extravaganza. It has to be seen to be believed.