Did you hear the one about the whale?

Thursday night, we live-tweeted from LA Opera‘s long-awaited run of Moby-Dick, the contemporary opera by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer that brings Melville’s classic tale of whaling and obsession up close and personal.

The score and production are beautiful, with mesmerizing projections that mimic flying through the stars and the movement of a wild sea.

Performances by Jay Hunter Morris (Captain Ahab), Joshua Guerrero (Greenhorn) and Morgan Smith (Starbuck) stand out, and the sense of adventure is palpable.

The story is full of a variety of personal demons, of course, and characterizations are vivid.  Morris does a beautiful job of singing like a pirate, without turning into a cartoon, and his strong presence and flashing eyes do much to make the captain larger than life.  As Queequeg, bass-baritone Musa Ngqungwana, who hails from South Africa, is tattooed and coiffed for his role, but is even more impressive vocally:

The cast gave us a story full of dramatic tension and lively bits of detail:

…and those of us in the Tweet Seats had some fun along the way:

It’s a great show, and Los Angeles has waited for it for quite a while. The show runs October 31 to November 28, and is a must-see. Don’t miss it while it’s here!


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See @LAOpera’s tweet overview via Storify

Tickets, photos, and more info at LAOpera.org

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