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: 139

Opera For Everyone
Podcast Episodes
Ep. 91 Guillaume Tell by Rossini [EXTENDED VERSION] [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:10:45
This extended version of our William Tell show includes everything from the regular length show, plus more history, more music, more explication, and more fun! Imperial soldiers, determined rebels, a martyred elder, a pl…
Ep. 91 Guillaume Tell by Rossini [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:59:00
Imperial soldiers, determined rebels, a martyred elder, a plucky youth, a noble princess, a cruel oppressor… it’s not Star Wars; it’s Rossini’s final opera, William Tell! First performed in the aftermath of the Napoleoni…
Ep. 90 Benvenuto Cellini by Berlioz [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:59:00
An adventurous Renaissance artist’s action-packed autobiography provided compelling inspiration for Hector Berlioz’s first completed opera, Benvenuto Cellini. Berlioz strongly identified with the notorious Cellini, seein…
Ep. 89 Trial by Jury and H.M.S. Pinafore by Gilbert and Sullivan [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:01:16
How do you get from The Opera to The Musical? Any answer to that question would have to include the powerhouse Victorian English duo of Gilbert and Sullivan and their ground-breaking form of “light opera.” Hilarious, che…
Ep. 88 Susannah by Carlisle Floyd [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:00:47
Although only included in some versions of the biblical book of Daniel, the story of “Susanna and the Elders” has long been a favorite artistic subject thanks to its risqué content and virtuous heroine, Susanna. Inspired…
Ep. 87 Pelléas et Mélisande by Debussy [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:59:02
A beautiful young woman with long golden hair; a charming young prince who lives in a castle in the fantastic land of Allemonde… While these may be the ingredients for a classic fairy-tale, this story subverts all expect…
Ep. 86 Orpheus In The Underworld By Offenbach [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:59:00
It’s not just modern interpreters who poke fun at distinguished personages of the mythic past. In the mid-nineteenth century, Jacques Offenbach turned the Orpehus and Euridice story on its head in his smash-hit, Orpheus…
Ep. 85 L'Orfeo By Monteverdi [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:58:59
In the palace of the Duke of Mantua in 1607, composer Claudio Monteverdi presented a ground-breaking “musical fable” to a select group. The music may sound Medieval to our ears, but it was truly modern at the time, and p…
Ep. 84 L'Enfance Du Christ By Berlioz [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:58:49
Join Opera for Everyone this holiday season as we explore Hector Berlioz’s unusual take on the Christmas story, L’Enfance du Christ. Instead of telling the familiar story culminating in the adoration of the newborn babe,…
Ep. 83 The Merry Widow By Franz Lehar [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:58:58
In Franz Lehar's operetta The Merry Widow, the men cheerfully complain "the study of women is hard," and the women dance circles around them! Premiered in the early twentieth century, The Merry Widow was an international…