The opera, commissioned to celebrate the opening of a new opera house in Dallas, has been a success from the beginning, drawing praise from audiences and critics — and even scholars.
As much as critics admired Scheer’s adaptation and Heggie’s tuneful, atmospheric and at times gripping score, they lavished special praise on the physical production, with sets by Robert Brill and projections by Elaine J. McCarthy.
Bob Wallace, a professor at Northern Kentucky State University and past president of the Melville Society, admired the opera so much that he wrote a book about its creation.
“Scheer and Heggie did a brilliant job of shrinking the novel to make it fit the stage and yet preserve so much of the essence of it,” he said in an interview.
Now the book’s famous opening line, “Call me Ishmael,” is transposed to the very end of the opera when the character has matured.
