Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Jake Heggie‘s distilled operatic adaptation of MOBY-DICK powerfully launches the Met’s spring season

• By drediman
• March 4, 2025
• No Comments

Last night marked the opening of the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Moby-Dick — Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s powerful adaptation of Herman Melville’s iconic literary work — launching the company into its spring season after a month-long hiatus from performances during the month of February. Since its premiere in 2010 in Dallas, the acclaimed opera has been well-traveled, having played major opera houses across the country, including those in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. After years of skirting the Met, Heggie has in recent years found success in New York, starting with his well-received operatic version of the wrenching film Dead Man Walking, which opened the company’s 2023-2024 season.

Distilling such a sprawling, epic, and unruly work as Melville’s novel into a digestible opera is no easy task, but Scheer’s libretto does as good a job as you could expect, conjuring clear and propulsive stage drama, while still managing to dabble in some of the author’s dense and pungent psychological musings about unchecked ambition and other themes. Much of Heggie’s music is evocative yet accessible — a welcome reprieve from the recent slate of atonal contemporary operas that have become fashionable. The piece shines in its attention to human drama, particularly in the vividly-wrought confrontational and choral sequences. Indeed, as a piece of music theater, there’s much to commend about the piece. Oddly missing, however, are the kind of impressionistic musical depictions of the forces of nature that distinguish, say, the sea-drenched works of Benjamin Britten. Nevertheless, Maestro Karen Kamensek was able to bring out the color and forward momentum of Heggie’s score. Leonard Foglia’s well-worn production, which has been expanded for the Met, is efficient yet highly theatrical, featuring projections and inventive usage of a curving backdrop to create the dynamic sensation of being out at sea.

The opening night cast was fantastic, starting with tenor Brandon Jovanovich in the central role of Captain Ahab, whose pursuit of the titular white whale drives much of the story. Throughout, Jovanovich’s vocal performance was muscular and full-bodied, and his dramatic portrayal of the famously obsessive captain authoritative and all-consuming. As Greenhorn (the opera’s stand-in for Ishmael), tenor Stephen Costello brought a stunning purity to his singing, working gorgeously in tandem with bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green’s affectingly introspective performance as the Polynesian harpooneer Queequeg. As the only female voice on display, soprano Janai Brugger beguiled in a sensitive portrayal of Pip. Stepping in for an ailing Peter Mattei in the pivotal role of Starbuck was sturdily-viced baritone Thomas Glass, who did an admirable job of fleshing out the knots of this emotionally conflicted character.

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MOBY-DICK
Opera
The Metropolitan Opera
3 hours, 10 minutes (with one intermission)
In repertory through March 29