The opera 'Moby-Dick,' composed by Jake Heggie and libretto by Gene Scheer, has transitioned from its initial success to a well-cultivated performance at the Met. Despite its impressive cast and strong production design, the opera's depiction of Ahab's obsessive quest feels lackluster, missing a sense of peril. Though the staging is dynamic, echoing the physicality of Melville's original text, the emotional gravitas required to convey monomania is subdued. Characters execute their roles in a manner that feels overly polished, leaving a lingering question about the necessity of retelling a story that results in tragedy without capturing the depths of its thematic richness.
In this opera about monomania and desperation, the stakes somehow seem low.
The vessel's rigging rises far above the deck, forming a cat's cradle of masts, ropes, and sails.
Melville's Moby-Dick is a profoundly physical book, and his sentences haul parlor-bound readers into a world of swinging spars and slippery decks.
The one-legged protagonist is a man of limited mobility who tends to clump on deck and deliver his arias.
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