Ep. 140 Moby Dick by Jake Heggie

Ep. 140 Moby Dick by Jake Heggie

Author: Opera for Everyone March 9, 2026 Duration: 1:58:06
All hands on deck! This episode of Opera for Everyone dives headlong into a leviathan of 21st-century opera: Jake Heggie’s Moby-Dick (2010). Adapted from Melville’s classic American novel, this seafaring drama is a gripping operatic meditation on obsession, authority, and the power of friendship. With Gene Scheer’s cinematic libretto and Heggie’s muscular score, the opera captures both the immensity of the sea and the intensity of life aboard the Pequod. Joining Pat on this voyage is guest Candice M. Kelsey, educator, poet, and Melville enthusiast, who brings a literary lens to the opera’s adaptation. Batten down the hatches and sail with us into operatic waters where the whale is white, the questions are vast, and the music is epic. For more on Candice Kelsey visit candicemkelseypoet.com  

There’s a particular kind of magic that happens when the curtain rises, but you don’t need a ticket to experience it. Opera For Everyone is a conversation that pulls back the velvet rope, hosted by Pat Wright. It grew from her lively talks with Keely Herron after seeing performances together, sparking a mission to make this grand art form feel like a shared discovery rather than a distant spectacle. Each episode invites a guest co-host into the mix, where the focus is on connection-breaking down stories, history, and the sheer power of the human voice without relying on jargon or pretense. You’ll hear the music itself, of course, those moments where everything soars, but you’ll also find plenty of epiphanies and genuine hilarity along the way. It’s a reminder that opera is about raw emotion and dramatic storytelling, elements that resonate with anyone. Originally broadcast on 89.1 KHOL in Jackson, Wyoming, this radio show found its second life as a podcast, allowing these accessible and enjoyable discussions to reach listeners anywhere, anytime. Tune in and you might just find yourself swept up in a world you thought was meant for someone else.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

Opera For Everyone
Podcast Episodes
Ep. 134 King Arthur by Henry Purcell [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:57:51
King Arthur stands astride the intersection of history, myth, legend, and politics. In every age of the history of Britain, he is reinterpreted for new audiences and new purposes. When composer Henry Purcell and poet-lib…
Ep. 133 Semele by Handel [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:01:42
It might at first sound like it would be nice to be the lover of the king of the Olympian gods, attended by divine spirits, and living in a luxurious palace among the clouds. But this happily-ever-after turns sour after…
Ep. 132 Verdi's Aida [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:58:36
The young Aida loves the dashing military commander Radamès, and he adores her with a burning passion.Their mutual love is, however, somewhat complicated by the fact that Aida is a slave, enslaved by a princess who is eq…
Ep. 131 Wagner's Tannhäuser [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:02:08
If you’re going to have a love triangle, why not have a singing knight, a literal saint, and the Goddess of Love herself? Come and enjoy the kind of sweeping, romantic, metaphysical yet dramatic opera that could only com…
Ep. 130 Orlando Furioso by Vivaldi [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:58:43
Once upon a time, there was a heroic knight, the greatest of Charlamagne’s famed paladins, and his name was Orlando (or Roland, depending on whom you ask.) Among his many heroic deeds and great journeys was this: a quest…
Ep. 129 Roméo et Juliette by Berlioz [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:58:30
You’ve never heard the story of Romeo and Juliet told like this! Not even if you have listened to the three previous episodes in which Pat and Kathleen discuss three operas based on the enduring tale of the “star-crossed…
Ep. 128 Médée (Medea) by Charpentier [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:59:21
What can one woman do, when set against the entire world? Quite a lot, if she happens to be the sorceress Medea. This French Baroque opera written by Marc Antoine Charpentier takes on the ancient tale of Medea’s struggle…
Ep. 127 Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:58:34
Can a young man win a wife through a singing competition? He just might, if he’s in Richard Wagner’s romantic comedy (yes, you read that right, “Richard Wagner’s romantic comedy,”) Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Young W…
Ep. 126 Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:58:37
Ill-fated lovers caught up in a world incapable of supporting love not sanctioned by officialdom… it’s a story for the ages. Join Pat and Kathleen for their third look at the Romeo and Juliet story in operatic form, I Ca…
Ep. 125 Puccini's Il Tabarro & Erica Miner's Overture to Murder [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:58:39
“Seems an opera house is the perfect place for mischief and mayhem,” says the hard-boiled Inspector Cristina as she seeks to unravel the mystery at the heart of Overture to Murder, the meticulously researched third book…