Utah Opera’s premiere of Heggie and Scheer’s Moby-Dick had three strikes against it. First, Herman Melville’s novel, upon which the opera is based, is definitely not my favorite. As an English teacher it pains me to admit that I have never actually made it all of the way through. I find the endless minutiae about the whaling industry to be mind numbingly dull. Second, I am not usually a fan of modern operas sung in English. I much prefer the classics sung in German and Italian. Third, the run of this opera coincided with the Sundance Film Festival and I didn’t think I would be able to fit it in. However, the more I learned about the production the more intrigued I became and I decided to get a ticket. Last night I interrupted my Sundance screenings to see it and I am so glad that I did because it is brilliant! Surprisingly, I found the condensed version of the novel performed on the Capitol Theatre stage to be anything but dull. I was completely captivated by the story of an obsession for vengeance. When the Pequod sets sail from Nantucket, the crew is excited about the riches they will earn, Greenhorn (Joshua Dennis), a newcomer to whaling, is eager for the adventure of seeing the world, Queegueg (Musa Ngqungwana) longs to see his island in the South Pacific again, and Starbuck (David Adam Moore) laments the dangers of whaling and fears that he will never see his wife and son again. Soon Captain Ahab (Roger Honeywell) tells them that the real mission is to find the white whale that took his leg and offers a gold doubloon to the sailor who spots Moby Dick first. When the crew is about to harpoon a whale, Ahab orders them to stop because it isn’t his whale. Three months later the crew is bored and prone to fighting so Starbuck demands that Ahab let them hunt. After spearing a whale, Starbuck pleads with Ahab to return to Nantucket to repair the leaking oil barrels and to seek medical attention for the cabin boy Pip (Jasmine Habersham) who was thrown overboard. Ahab refuses and Starbuck contemplates killing him before his obsession dooms them all. Ahab descends further into madness and, when the whale is finally spotted, deems it his destiny to kill it himself in an epic battle which kills everyone on board except Greenhorn who utters these immortal words when he is rescued: "Call me Ishmael." The music is beautiful and haunting and I especially loved it when the chorus chants "Death to Moby Dick." All of the principals sing their roles brilliantly and I was struck by the pathos in every performance, particularly by Moore! The men's chorus not only sings but does an outstanding job with the choreography to convey the movement on a ship, whether it is raising the sails, harpooning a whale, rendering the blubber into oil, or riding out a storm. The sets and costumes were constructed by Utah Opera and they are fantastic. Finally, the build up to the battle between the whale and Ahab is intense and I was not disappointed with the special effects (which I will not spoil for those still planning to see it) in this scene. I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I loved this opera and I highly recommend getting a ticket to the final performance on Sunday.
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