The white whale struck again, this time as an opera by Jake Heggie ("Dead Man Walking"-which, BTW, will be presented by HGO next season). So we and a friend hied ourselves to Dallas for a night of a mariner's tale of epic proportion set to rousing music. So how apropos was it, that the floor of the dress circle bar vibrated and trembled? Not due to the music, I think-in intermission? And no quake either.. just a room full of people walkingabout and shaking the building?
Our first time at the new Dallas Opera House
, named after the benefactors Margot and Bill Winspear. A glass palace with red accents inside, soaring ceilings and almost free floating staircases, cool or cold, modern, bare lobbies not exactly cosy nooks! An old fashioned (;-) horseshoe shaped auditorium with few plush accoutrements. Warm appearing wooden floors and walls however assure excellent acoustics. A stalagtite chandelier
of glowing rods gets silently absorbed into the ceiling at curtain time. An open orchestra pit filled to the brim with musicians and their instruments. A large orchestra, you say!
Yes, but Heggie's Moby Dick music, has an almost Wagnerian cast with swelling sounds accompanying the excellent all male chorus. As a matter of fact the whole cast was male, albeit with one exception:
Soprano Talise Trevigne in the trouser role of the ship's boy PIP. She carried the role well, sang exuberantly with a crystal clear soprano, even while being carried on a rope across the lofty stage area - the director's attempt to portray PIP overboard at sea. PIP is emotionally hurt by his 'almost death at sea' and even as he is rescued, he turns loony.
Captain AHAB, obsessed with the hunt for the White Whale, and powerfully sung by Tenor Ben Hepner, outfitted with a peg leg. How that was accomplished is still astounding and that he could sing the way he did with it, was even more of a feat! To my ears, admittedly not truly expert, Hepner's voice lacked a certain dark shading . Unexpectedly, I felt, his portrayal of the mad Captain of Melville's novel was perhaps the weakest part of this opera. Now, it simply could be due to the libretto or due to his clean and heroic sounding voice which is and will be that of a Heldentenor, hero of Wagner's Operas. I cannot explain it, really.
Heggie's music seemed ideally suited to the chorus, building a bridge between, at first, low, then stronger and louder sound till culminating in a roaring rocking crescendo when Ahab finally 'persuades' his crew to hunt relentlessly, as he wants, nay has to, for Moby Dick.
STARBUCKS, the mate, sung by Baritone Morgan Smith, has a plum of a role, amazingly a really fleshed out one. He is the caring, cautious mate, who in the end has to bow to his Captain's will and dies with him and the rest of the ship's complement.
Tenor Stephen Costello sang GREENHORN, the sole survivor. His voice has a burnished sound which reaches easily the heights required by the composer. His role is a sympathetic one and Mr. Costello did it full justice.
Baritone Robert Orth as STUBB provided a measure of levity as the singing instigator of sailors' hornpipe dances to pass the time on ship.
Jonathan Lemalu, listed as a bass-baritone, was the Native Queegueg. His voice, alas, at times was drowned out by the swelling orchestra. And to my ears, he sounded more like a deep bass without the higher notes of a baritone.
Several other roles of somewhat less visibility were sung creditably by O'Neill, Beyer, Haal, Bates, Jackson and Roswell.
Maestro Patrick Summers conducted with a fine feeling for Heggie's music.
The stage direction (Leonard Foglia), set (Brill) and lighting (Holder) relied heavily and MOST successfully on projections (McCarthy) of a schematic drawing rather then a physical mock-up of the 'Pequod' whaling ship, and skeletal "whale boats" surrounding the 'seated' (on a steeply raked stage) sailors on the hunt for Moby Dick.
Gushing, spewing, giant waves , believable torrents of them seemingly rushing into the orchestra pit!
The visual effects were truly stunning. I kinda hate to use AWESOME, but it truly was!
There was not one single moment when the audience was not drawn into the action on stage, by the visuals, the mood on stage, the emotions/characterizations of Melville's hugely plotted Magnum Opus expressively empowered by the libretto (Gene Scheer) and essayed by the actor/singers. Standing ovations went on for a long time!
And so did we.. stood and cheered, clapped till palms stung.
What an experience, this opera grabs you by the throat and will not let you go from the first to the last minute!
Unfortunately, no recording of it is available at this time. Sure hope a DVD of this production will be cut soon?
