Karen Kamensek returns to the Metropolitan Opera to conduct "Moby Dick" by Jake Heggie

KAREN KAMENSEK returns to the Metropolitan Opera to conduct Jake Heggie's Moby Dick

Performances on 3/8/11/15/19/22/25/29 March 2025

"Following the impressive Met premiere of his first opera, Dead Man Walking, composer Jake Heggie returns with his 2010 adaptation of Herman Melville's sea-and-sky epic. A stellar ensemble gathers on the deck of the Pequod, with tenor Brandon Jovanovich as the monomaniacal Captain Ahab, single-mindedly pursuing his quest for the white whale; tenor Stephen Costello as Greenhorn, the operatic version of Ishmael; baritone Peter Mattei as the poised first mate Starbuck; and bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green as the Polynesian harpooner Queequeg. The ensemble also includes soprano Janai Brugger as Pip, tenor William Burden as Flask, and baritone Malcolm MacKenzie as Stubb. Maestro Karen Kamensek takes the podium for a stunning production by Leonard Foglia, which, after acclaimed performances in Dallas, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC, now presents an expanded and refined version at the Met. 

“Heggie's score evokes the grandeur of tonality and scope of the novel, outlining individuals and ideas with quasi-Wagnerian motifs from its opening bars. The orchestra is prominently featured, as is the all-male chorus, which brings to life a host of emotions. The opera's most striking moments arise when solo voices combine in duets and ensembles that express the many conflicts of the human journey: good versus evil, love versus death, hope versus despair.” (Source: The Met Opera .)