About the work
Moby-Dick is an opera in two acts by Jake Heggie to a libretto by Gene Scheer, loosely based on Herman Melville's 1851 novel of the same name. Five companies – Dallas Opera, San Francisco Opera, San Diego Opera, Calgary Opera and the State Opera of South Australia – jointly commissioned the work; it premiered on 30 April 2010 at Dallas Opera, with Ben Heppner as Ahab under conductor Patrick Summers. Heggie dedicated the opera to Stephen Sondheim.
Plot
Aboard the whaling ship Pequod, Captain Ahab drives his crew into an obsessive hunt for the white whale that once cost him a leg. Only first mate Starbuck recognises the deadly consequences of this fixation, but cannot turn Ahab from his course. The pursuit ends with the ship's destruction; Ishmael alone survives.
Cultural significance
The opera established itself as one of the most widely performed contemporary American works of its time, won a 2012 Helpmann Award, and has since toured numerous major American opera houses.