Moby-Dick (opera)
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| Title: | Moby-Dick |
| Shape: | Opera in two acts |
| Original language: | English |
| Music: | Jake Heggie |
| Libretto : | Gene Scheer |
| Literary source: | Herman Melville : Moby-Dick |
| Premiere: | April 30, 2010 |
| Place of premiere: | Dallas Opera |
| Playing time: | approx. 2 ½ hours |
| Place and time of the action: | on the whaler Pequod |
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Moby-Dick is a two- act opera by Jake Heggie (music) with a libretto by Gene Scheer based on Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick . The world premiere took place on April 30, 2010 at the Dallas Opera .
action
The opera is set on the whaling ship Pequod in 1820. Its captain Ahab lost a leg in a previous trip through a white whale called Moby Dick and is now obsessed with tracking it down and killing it.
first act
Day one. The whaler Pequod has been at sea for a week
Scene 1. It is a few hours before sunrise. While most of the crew members sleep below deck, the harpooner Queequeg, a native of the (fictional) island of Kokovoko, prays in his native Polynesian language ("Fune ala"). The newcomer Greenhorn wakes up. They talk about religion and Greenhorn explains why he came on the ship.
Scene 2. After daybreak everyone is called to work (“All hands!”) And the crew hoists the sails. The three mates Starbuck, Stubb and Flask talk about the solitary captain Ahab, who never shows himself during the day and instead walks around on deck at night. The seafarers long to hunt and then return to their homeland. The captain nails an ounce of gold to the mast for the one who is the first to see Moby Dick. The hunt for this whale is the sole purpose of this trip. The harpooners step forward, drink grog together and swear death to Moby Dick. After calm has returned, Starbuck seeks a conversation with the captain. He thinks this mission is blasphemous and points out that he hired to hunt whales and not to avenge his commander.
Scene 3. Starbuck points out the dangers of whaling to Greenhorn (“You, Greenhorn, with me”). When Greenhorn tells him that there is no family waiting for him, Starbuck is overwhelmed by thoughts of his own wife and son and asks Queequeg to instruct Greenhorn in his tasks, which he does meticulously. Stubb sees a group of whales. Everyone gathers on deck - but to their disappointment, Captain Ahab forbids the hunt as there is no white whale among them. Starbuck sends greenhorn to the lookout.
Scene 4. At sunset, Ahab ponders his mission. He has now lost all joy in life. On the lookout, Greenhorn and the Queequeg who followed him watch the world. You are ready to fight the whale. Meanwhile, Starbuck laments the captain's obsession with knowing exactly what the others think of him.
Day two. Three months later
Scene 5. Stubb and the cabin boy Pip are chatting happily about the sharks circling around the ship, who prefer to eat the whale meat straight from the bone (“Well, Stubb, wise Stubb”). Her good mood encourages the other seafarers to dance - but suddenly there is an argument between members of the different ethnic groups and a fight ensues. Only when Greenhorn spotted a group of whales did the situation calm down again. Starbuck persuades Ahab to let the men go hunting this time. While Starbuck and Stubb are successful, Flask's boat capsizes. Pip is flushed out of the boat and then goes missing.
Scene 6. On the Pequod, the killed whale is cut up and the oil left out. Starbuck informs the captain that Stubb, Queequeg and Greenhorn are still looking for Pip on the sea ("We did our best to find him"), but Ahab can only think of his own search for Moby Dick. Flask reports to Starbuck that many of the oil drums are leaking.
Below deck, Starbuck tries to convince the captain to call at the nearest port to mend the barrels. Ahab is unreasonable. His only concern is Moby Dick. When Starbuck points out the shipowners expecting a return, Ahab threatens him with his musket. Only Greenhorn's exclamation that Pip was found alive prevents worse, and Ahab throws Starbuck out.
Greenhorn tells the others how Queequeg saved the boy by swimming against the current. While Pip fantasizes wildly after his shock, the others go back to work. Greenhorn points out the boy's condition to Starbuck. Since he does not respond, Greenhorn realizes that the Heath Queequeg showed more compassion than the Christians on board. He decides to befriend him.
Scene 7. Again Starbuck goes into Ahab's cabin ("Captain Ahab? I must speak with you"). As the captain is sleeping, Starbuck takes his musket. He would now have the chance to end his problems. But when Ahab cries out in his sleep, he puts the gun down again and goes out.
Second act
Day three. One year later
Scene 1. A big storm is approaching ("Rolling white caps"). Unimpressed by this, Stubb, Flask and others sing a happy song. Ahab orders them to drive straight into the storm. Up in the rigging, Greenhorn informs Queequeg of his wish to visit his home island with him after the trip is over. There he wants to learn his language and write down their experiences. Queequeg suddenly collapses and falls on the deck. However, Ahab does not have the trip interrupted, but has Queequeg brought below deck and personally takes over the lookout - he now wants to earn the gold ounce himself.
Scene 2. Queequeg thinks he's going to die ("Something change. Here in heart"). He asks Greenhorn to have a coffin made for him. One should let him drift in it on the sea. Pip arrives and sings a melancholy song that Greenhorn joins.
Scene 3. The ship is now in the middle of the storm. Lightning and Elmsfeuer illuminate the masts (“Light, thou leapest out of darkness”). Ahab thinks the latter is a good omen. Despite the objections, he orders Starbucks in ecstasy to hold the post.
Day four. The next morning
Scene 4. The Pequod survived the storm. Another ship, the Rachel, is approaching (“Captain Ahab!”). Their captain Gardiner begs Ahab to help him find his 12-year-old son, who has been missing since the storm. Despite the crew's requests, Ahab refuses to interrupt his journey. Pip fantasizes that he saw the boy: he drowned with the others. He injures himself and stains Ahab's clothes with his blood. Ahab sends him to his cabin. After the others go back to their work, Ahab curses God. He baptizes his new harpoon in the name of the devil with Pip's blood.
Scene 5. Below deck, Greenhorn looks at Queequeg's coffin and ponders human madness (“Human madness is a cunning and most feline thing”).
Scene 6. Another encounter between the captain and Starbuck is more peaceful (The Symphony: "Ah Starbuck. It is a mild, mild wind"). Ahab says that since he shot his first whale forty years ago, he has only spent three years on land. He could no longer see any meaning in it. When he looks Starbuck in the eye, he remembers his own wife and son waiting for him in Nantucket. Starbuck persuades him to break off the trip and return home.
Scene 7. At that moment Ahab sees the white whale ("There! There! She blows!"). The team gathers excitedly. Now even Starbucks reminders can no longer dissuade Ahab from the fight. He orders Starbuck to stay aboard the Pequod while the others get into the boats. Queequeg also pulls himself up again. But Moby Dick destroys two of the boats and sinks the Pequod. Lastly, he attacks the captain's boat. Before Ahab himself sinks into the sea, he still manages to harpoon the whale.
epilogue
Greenhorn was the only one to survive the disaster. Drifting in the sea on Queequeg's coffin, he mourns his friend ("Fune ala") until he is rescued by Captain Gardiner, who is still looking for his son. When Gardiner asks his name, Greenhorn replies with the words "Call me Ishmael" - the opening words of the novel.
layout
Instrumentation
The orchestral line-up for the opera includes the following instruments:
- Woodwind : three flutes (also a Piccolo ), three oboe (also an English horn ), three clarinets (a and bass clarinet ), three Fagotte (also a Kontrafagott)
- Brass : four horns in F, three trumpets in C, two trombones , bass trombone
- Drums (two players), a timpani
- harp
- Strings
- Stage music: tambourine (played by Pip), other items used by the crew as drums
music
The opera is well composed. The first and second act are each preceded by a prelude and the fifth scene of the first act is preceded by an interlude. There are Ariosi and a duet.
The music can basically be described with the words “accessible and eclectic”. It is largely tonal and is occasionally reminiscent of Claude Debussy , Benjamin Britten , Samuel Barber or Philip Glass . Certain rhythmic combinations have their roots in jazz. Despite all the echoes of other composers, Heggie's personal style dominates the score. The crew's seafaring songs come entirely from his hand.
Important main motifs are already presented in the overture. Over an E minor base of strings, harp and triangle, which perhaps represents the expanse of the sea and the resulting loneliness, the winds first play an ascending figure made up of two notes, which expand into a simple, recognizable motif, the scale up and down. The clarinet comes up with the theme that was later assigned to Queequeg, and both motifs are taken up by other instruments. Then the oboe plays the theme of Ahab's aria "I leave a white and turbid wake," which characterizes his obsession. Heggie treats the assignment of such recurring motifs to the individual characters, emotional states or objects more freely than with real leitmotifs .
Great importance is attached to the orchestra color. Solo instruments and unusual instrumental combinations create a kaleidoscopic effect. The same applies to the vocal parts. The role of Ahab is sung by a hero tenor. He is hero, demigod, military officer and wounded sailor at the same time, and his inner turmoil is reminiscent of Verdi's Otello . Another color is added by the cast of the cabin boy Pip with a soprano as the only female voice. The vocal ensembles consist of superimposed monologues of the individual characters.
libretto
Gene Scheer's libretto is based on Melville's original. It mainly takes into account the external plot, while only hinting at the philosophical comments on whaling and the nature of the world. The focus is on the conflict between Ahab the first mate Starbuck and the beginning friendship between Queequeg and Greenhorn. In order not to exceed the time frame of the opera, all parts of the original playing on land have been left out, so that the entire opera is set at sea. Heggie and Scheer regretted that this meant that some interesting characters and developments did not find their way into the opera. They shifted some elements of the plot, such as the creation of Queequegs and Greenhorns friendship, to the ship. To do this, Scheer reinvented some scenes and integrated them into the original scenes. The role of Ishmael (the narrator of the novel) has been significantly upgraded and provided with additional scenes. From the beginning, Heggie planned to make the opening words “Call me Ishmael” the final words of the opera. This made it necessary to first give him another name in the opera - Greenhorn.
Scheer took over the "quarter deck" scene (Ahab swears his team on their mission), the "sunset" scene (Ahab realizes that he can no longer enjoy life), the "chart" - directly from the template. Scene (Ahab almost kills Starbuck), the "symphony" scene (Ahab looks Starbuck in the eye) and the "hunt" scene (Ahab harpooned Moby Dick and died with his crew). Scheer also used Melville's poetic language in these scenes.
Work history
Jake Heggie was commissioned to write Moby-Dick in 2005 by the Dallas Opera . Before the premiere, the San Francisco Opera , the San Diego Opera, the State Opera of South Australia and the Calgary Opera joined the contract. The composition was created in close collaboration between the composer and his librettist Gene Scheer , the dramaturge Leonard Foglia and the conductor Patrick Summers . After a first workshop in 2009, the five-week rehearsal phase began at the end of March 2010. Two hours before the premiere at the Dallas Opera on April 30, 2010, the entire computer system collapsed and could be repaired just in time. Elaine McCarthy's digital projections are an integral part of the opera and will also be used in future productions.
Patrick Summers was the musical director of the world premiere, Leonard Foglia was the director, Robert Brill set the stage, Elaine McCarthy provided the projections, Donald Holder did the lighting and Jane Greenwood provided the costumes . The leading roles were sung by Ben Heppner (Captain Ahab), Stephen Costello (Greenhorn), Jonathan Lemalu (Queequeg), Morgan Smith (Starbuck), Talise Trevigne (Pip) and Matthew O'Neill (Flask). The work was then taken over by the other commissioning companies. The premiere was a huge success. The six performances in Dallas were enthusiastically received by audiences and press.
A recording of the San Francisco Opera's production was televised nationally and subsequently released on DVD. Here Jay Hunter Morris took on the role of Ahab. The rest of the cast was identical to that of the premiere.
There were further performances at the Washington National Opera in 2014 , at the Los Angeles Opera in 2015 and in 2016 as a revival at the Dallas Opera.
In 2010/2011, during his residency at the University of North Texas in Denton , Heggie composed a symphony with solo tenor based on the monologues of Ahab.
David Patrick Stearns, the reviewer of the Gramophone , compared Moby-Dick to the great ocean operas Billy Budd (Britten) and L'amour de loin (Saariaho). The only thing missing was a coherent motivation for the obedience of Ahab's team. He assessed the musical thematic development of the score as the work of a "master composer". Manuel Brug placed the work in the world premiere review of the opera between Gilbert & Sullivan's military opera HMS Pinafore and Billy Budd, whose “intensity and hardness” it does not achieve. One of the main problems is the "showdown" that has been postponed too long. However, he rated the musical and scenic quality of the performance positively.
literature
- Robert K. Wallace: Heggie and Scheer's Moby-Dick: A Grand Opera. University of North Texas Press, 2013, ISBN 1-57441-507-7 ( online in Google Book Search).
Web links
- Work information on the website of the composer Jake Heggie (English)
- Work information on klassika.info
- Performance information and table of contents on the Dallas Opera website
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b information about the work on the website of the composer Jake Heggie , accessed on January 26, 2017.
- ^ A b Nicholas Ivor Martin: The Opera Manual. Scarecrow Press, 2013, ISBN 0-8108-8869-6 , pp. 248-249 ( online in the Google book search).
- ↑ a b c Manuel Brug: Sentiment and Action - Jake Heggies "Moby Dick" with Ben Heppner in Dallas. In: Opernwelt from July 2010, p. 22.
- ↑ a b c d Moby-Dick - San Diego Opera , accessed January 30, 2017.
- ↑ a b Ryan Ebright: Moby-Dick by Jake Heggie (review). In: Notes. Vol. 71, No. 1 of September 2014, pp. 140-141 ( online in Project MUSE ).
- ↑ a b c David Patrick Stearns: DVD review . In Gramophone February 2014, accessed January 28, 2017.
- ↑ a b c d e f Robert K. Wallace: Heggie and Scheer's Moby-Dick: A Grand Opera. University of North Texas Press, 2013, ISBN 1-57441-507-7 .
- ↑ Moby Dick - Review on applause-meter.com , accessed January 28, 2017.
- ^ Moby-Dick DVD San Francisco Opera / Great Performances (EuroArts) , accessed January 28, 2017.
- ↑ Melanie Feilotter: Heggie, Jake. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).