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Jake Heggie

Heggie MOBY-DICK DVD with San Francisco Opera

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On this world premiere recording, Grammy-winning tenor Jay Hunter Morris plays the role of Captain Ahab in Herman Meville’s epic tale of a fierce, obsessive whaling-boat captain who descends into madness and puts his crew in mortal danger is brought to the stage in this thrilling production from San Francisco Opera. Composer Jake Heggie is in his ‘finest creation since Dead Man Walking,’ and librettist Gene Scheer adaptation is ‘a vibrant, compelling piece of musical theater’ (San Francisco Chronicle).

Watch the video on YouTube.

Purchase the DVD here.

OPERA America Songbook features several BHM Composers

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Believing that the creation of art should mark every special occasion, OPERA America commissioned the OPERA America Songbook in celebration of the opening of the National Opera Center in September 2012. Composers with strong ties to the organization were invited to write a song for voice and piano on the theme of opening a new home, the joy of singing or the excitement of new beginnings. This collection of songs represents the distinctive voices of some of today’s most important established and emerging opera composers. Produced by OPERA America, the Songbook was recorded, edited and mastered at Gurari Studios in New York City in the summer of 2012.

Both audio recordings and a published collection are available for the Songbook.songbookCover

Purchase recordings from ITunes.

Purchase sheet music from Hal Leonard.

Heggie HERE/AFTER double cd

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A double-CD of recent music and songs performed by tenor Stephen Costello, mezzo Joyce DiDonato, baritone Nathan Gunn, soprano Talise Trevigne, with flutist Carol Wincenc, The Alexander String Quartet, and many others.

More than two hours of music, including Camille Claudel, Pieces of 9/11, Friendly Persuasions, Rise & Fall, A Question of Light, Fury of Light, Soliloquy.

Heggie and Scheer’s Moby-Dick: A Grand Opera for the Twenty-first Century

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Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s grand opera Moby-Dick was a stunning success in the world premiere production by the Dallas Opera in 2010. Robert K. Wallace attended the final performance of the Dallas production and has written this book so readers can experience the process by which this contemporary masterpiece was created and performed on stage. Interviews with the creative team and draft revisions of the libretto and score show the opera in the process of being born. Interviews with the principal singers and the production staff follow the five-week rehearsal period into the world premiere production, each step of the way illustrated by more than two hundred color photographs by Karen Almond.

Opera fans, lovers of Moby-Dick, and students of American and global culture will welcome this book as a highly readable and visually enthralling account of the creation of a remarkable new opera that does full justice to its celebrated literary source. Just as Heggie and Scheer’s opera is enjoyed by operagoers with no direct knowledge of Moby-Dick, so will this book be enjoyed by opera fans unaware of Melville and by Melville fans unaware of opera.

Heggie’s MOBY-DICK premieres at San Francisco Opera

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“A masterpiece of clarity and intensity, with a score that is at once thematically compact and richly inventive.”
Stephen Costello (left) is Greenhorn, Jay Hunter Morris is Ahab and Jonathan Lemalu is Queequeg in expressive "Moby-Dick." Photo: Cory Weaver, SF Opera / SF

“A GREAT AMERICAN OPERA” Opera Now Magazine

“A TRIUMPH”The Dallas Morning News

“AN UNDENIABLE SUCCESS” The New York Times

“THE HIT OF THE SEASON” The Washington Post

“A MASSIVE ARTISTIC ACCOMPLISHMENT” WFAA-TV

Moby-Dick is an opera in two acts by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer, based on the novel by Herman Melville. Commissioned by The Dallas Opera with San Francisco Opera, San Diego Opera, Calgary Opera and the State Opera of South Australia, Moby-Dick opened to extraordinary international acclaim on April 30, 2010 at the Margot & Bill  Winspear Opera House in Dallas.

Moby DickJay Hunter Morris (Captain Ahab), Stephen Costello (Greenhorn) and Jonathan Lemalu (Queequeg). Photo: Cory Weaver, SF Opera / SF

ORIGINAL PRODUCTION TEAM

Conductor Patrick Summers
Director & Dramaturg Leonard Foglia
Set Design Robert Brill
Lighting Donald Holder
Costumes Jane Greenwood
Projections & Film Elaine McCarthy
Musical Preparation Laurie Rogers, Michael Heaston, Janice Fehlauer
Chorus Conductor Alexander Ro

ORIGINAL CAST

Ahab Ben Heppner
Greenhorn Stephen Costello
Starbuck Morgan Smith
Queequeg Jonathan Lemalu
Pip Talise Trevigne
Stubb Robert Orth
Flask Matthew O’Neill
Gardiner Jonathan Beyer

The Dallas Opera Orchestra and Men of the Chorus

ORCHESTRATION

3 flutes (one doubles piccolo)
3 oboes (one doubles English Horn)
3 clarinets (one doubles bass clarinet)
3 bassoons (one doubles contrabassoon)

4 horns in F
3 trumpets in C
2 trombones
bass trombone

timpani
2 percussion
harp

strings

PRODUCTION COMPANIES

A list of companies who have performed or scheduled future performances of the opera follows:

  1. The Dallas Opera (April 2010)
  2. State Opera of South Australia (Aug./Sept. 2011)
  3. Calgary Opera (Jan. 2012)
  4. San Diego Opera (Feb. 2012)
  5. San Francisco Opera (Oct. 2012)
  6. Washington National Opera (Feb.-March 2014)
  7. Los Angeles Opera (Oct.-Nov. 2015)
  8. The Dallas Opera (Nov. 2016)
  9. Utah Opera (Jan. 2018)
  10. Pittsburgh Opera (March 2018)

LICENSING

For theatrical performances, there are two components to licensing Dead Man Walking. Grand Rights (theatrical rights) are licensed by:

Funsten and Franzen

dfranzen@lawff.com

Bill Holab Music handles rentals and sales of the musical materials. You can request a quote here.

Scores can be purchased here.

Heggie’s DEAD MAN WALKING

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“Dead Man Walking makes the most concentrated impact of any piece of American music theater since West Side Story more than 40 years ago.”
THE GUARDIAN (London)

Since its premiere in 2000, Dead Man Walking, the first opera by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Terrence McNally, has become one of the opera world’s most performed new works. Commissioned by San Francisco Opera (then headed by Lotfi Mansouri), it is based on the prize-winning book by Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ  and tells the modern-day story of a nun who becomes the spiritual advisor to a condemned man on Louisiana’s death row. The opera was first performed on October 7, 2000 at San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House. Maestro Patrick Summers led the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and Chorus and a cast that included mezzo-soprano Susan Graham as Sister Helen, baritone John Packard as Joseph DeRocher, and mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade as his mother, Mrs. DeRocher. The production was directed by Joe Mantello and featured sets by Michael Yeargan, lighting by Jennifer Tipton, and costumes by Sam Flemming. The original run of seven performances was increased to nine due to popular demand, and most performances were sold out.

In 2001 a new production of Dead Man Walking was commissioned by seven American opera companies: Opera Pacific, Cincinnati Opera, New York City Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, Michigan Opera Theater, Pittsburgh Opera and Baltimore Opera. Directed by Leonard Foglia and designed by Michael McGarty, the production features costumes by Jess Goldstein and lighting by Brian Nason.

PRODUCTION COMPANIES

A list of companies who have performed or scheduled future performances of the opera follows:

  1. San Francisco Opera (2000) — World Premiere
  2. Opera Pacific (2002) — New Production
  3. Cincinnati Opera (2002)
  4. New York City Opera (2002)
  5. Austin Lyric Opera (2003)
  6. Michigan Opera Theater (2003)
  7. State Opera of South Australia (2003) — First International Production
  8. Pittsburgh Opera (2004) — Live Broadcast on National Public Radio
  9. Calgary Opera (2006) — New Production. Canadian Premiere.
  10. Baltimore Opera (2006)
  11. Dresden Semperoper (2006) — New Production. European Premiere.
  12. Malmö Opera (2006-2007) — New Production. Scandinavian Premiere.
  13. Sydney, Australia (2007) — New Production
  14. Dresden Semperoper  (2007) — Revival.
  15. Vienna Klangbogen Festival (2007)
  16. Hagen, Germany (2007-2008)
  17. Dublin, Ireland (2007) — New Production
  18. University of Colorado at Boulder (2007) — New Production. First complete university production.
  19. University of Nebraska in Lincoln. (2008) —  New Production. Directed by William Shomos and conducted by Tyler White.
  20. Malmö Opera (2009) (revival)
  21. Fort Worth Opera (2009)
  22. Dresden SemperOper (2009) (revival)
  23. Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen (2009)
  24. Cape Town Opera, South Africa (2009)
  25. Houston Grand Opera (2011) – 10th Anniversary Production
  26. Union Avenue Opera, St. Louis (2011)
  27. Tulsa Opera (2012)
  28. Dresden SemperOper (2012) – revival
  29. Fayetteville Opera (2013)
  30. Opéra de Montréal (2013)
  31. Boston Opera Collaborative (2013)
  32. Eugene Opera (2013)
  33. The Modern American Music Project (2013)
  34. Staatstheater Schwerin, Germany (2014)
  35. Madison Opera (2014)
  36. Central City Opera (2014)
  37. DePaul University (2014)
  38. Des Moines Metro Opera (2014)
  39. Madison Opera (2014)
  40. University of Michigan (2014)
  41. Opera Parallele (2015)
  42. Northwestern University (2015)
  43. Opera NUOVA (2015)
  44. Dayton Opera (2015)
  45. Indiana University Opera Theater (2015)
  46. New Orleans Opera (2016)
  47. Shreveport Opera (2016)
  48. Townsend Opera (2016)
  49. Fresno Opera (2016)
  50. Lyric Opera of Kansas City (2017)
  51. Vancouver Opera (2017)
  52. Washington National Opera (2017)
  53. Pensacola Opera (2017)
  54. Miami Music Festival (2017)
  55. Opera on the Avalon (2017)
  56. Boston Conservatory (2017)
  57. Kentucky Opera (2017)
  58. BBC Symphony/Barbican Center (2018)
  59. Minnesota Opera (2018)
  60. James Madison University (2018)
  61. Teatro Real Madrid (2018)
  62. Utah Opera (2018)
  63. Theater Erfurt (2019)
  64. Atlanta Opera (2019)
  65. Oldenburgisches Staatstheater (2019)
  66. Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (2019)
  67. Welsh National Opera (2019)
  68. Israel Opera (2019)
  69. Opera Idaho (2020)
  70. Hungarian State Opera (2020)
  71. The Metropolitan Opera (2023)
  72. Lanestheater Detmold (2024)
  73. Miami Music Festival (2024)
  74. Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landestheater (2025)
  75. Opera AACC (2025)

Recordings

There are two recordings of Dead Man Walking:

Houston Grand Opera

San Francisco Opera

Instrumentation

There are two versions of the orchestration to Dead Man Walking.

Original (full) Orchestration

3 Flutes (3rd doubling Alto Flute and Piccolo)
2 Oboes
English Horn
2 Clarinets in Bb
Bass Clarinet
3 Bassoons (3rd doubling Contrabassoon)

4 Horns in F
3 Trumpets in C
2 Trombones
Bass Trombone

Harp
Piano
Timpani
Percussion (2 players)

Strings

Reduced Orchestration

2 Flutes (2nd doubling on Alto Flute and Piccolo)
2 Oboes (2nd doubling English Horn)
2 Clarinets in Bb(2nd doubling Bass Clarinet)
2 Bassoons (2nd doubling on Contrabassoon)

2 Horns in F
2 Trumpets in C
Trombone
Bass Trombone

Synthesizer (harp and piano sounds only)
Timpani
2 Percussion

Strings

Licensing

For theatrical performances, there are two components to licensing Dead Man Walking. Grand Rights (theatrical rights) are licensed by:

Funsten and Franzen

Jennifer Hughes

Bill Holab Music handles rentals and sales of the musical materials. You can request a quote here.

Scores can be purchased here.