Spectrum News NY1

A whale of a show: Metropolitan Opera reels in a big one
February 2024

In an early scene from "Moby-Dick," the crew of the whaling vessel The Pequod get to know their skipper. His name is Captain Ahab, and they are on a dangerous journey to track down the white whale that took part of Ahab’s leg on a previous voyage. It’s the Metropolitan Opera premiere of the 2010 adaptation of Herman Melville’s 19th century classic story.

Composer Jake Heggie did the music, collaborating with librettist Gene Scheer on the words. Heggie remembers that getting the opera afloat wasn’t easy.

“I struggled for like six months to write music, and I had to throw it all away because I hadn’t found Ahab," Heggie said, adding that once he found him: “I went back and wrote the whole opera in about four months.”