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BY-DICK JAKE


Squeezes an Opera Out of a Whale


by randy hope Jake Heggie’s name and face is not immediately


recognized by people outside the opera realm. Still, it’s likely you might have heard about the work he’s done. Heggie’s the man credited with breathing the life and soul into operas worldwide. When it comes to the world of opera Heggie’s quickly rising to become one of the best contem- porary American composers today. The Rage Monthly hooked the accomplished composer as he returned to


the city by the bay in between another jet-setting jaunt to one of several opera houses he associates with around the world. San Francisco seems to have Heggie’s heart. It’s where he serves as resident composer for the San Francisco Opera and where Dead Man Walking, the first opera Heg- gie composed with librettist Terrence McNally, premiered in 2000. An oeuvre now considered a masterpiece and one of the opera world’s most performed new works. Southern California aficionados and opera newcomers alike are fortu-


nate enough to have the opportunity to enjoy the visionary mastermind’s work as composer of Moby-Dick, when the opera makes its West Coast Premiere at the San Diego Opera on Saturday, February 18. Establish- ing himself as an accomplished composer in the past decade, Heggie is also credited with the operas Three Decembers, The End of the Affair, To Hell and Back, For A Look or a Touch, and in the musical scene At the Statue of the Venus. His vocal and stage works have been performed by dozens of international opera companies on five continents, and are championed by beloved singers like Stephen Costello, Joyce DiDonato, Susan Graham, Ben Heppner, Patti LuPone and Frederica von Stade, to name a few.


From head to tail Moby-Dick is a timeless classic many people have a love-hate relationship with. It’s also a tale that is overflowing with homoerotic content. How does that transfer to the opera stage? We wanted to tell a great story. The idea was not to do anything prolific or to


Composer HEGGIE


focus on any particular issue—it was to do whatever necessary to tell the story. I agree that homoeroticism is deeply ingrained into the story. I believe there are even classes on homosexuality andMoby-Dick at universities around the country. Our main goal was to tell the story in such a way, in which people are not taken out of the moment or find themselves suddenly thinking, “Why did that happen?” Rather they’re involved in the story and continue to be engaged by the storyline, music and singing. We don’t necessarily go to or go from the issue of homoeroti- cism that is in the book and the story—it is there as well as on stage. It’s not some- thing we run towards or away from, we just let it be as it is in Melville’s story. What do you think surprises people most about this production? I think they’re surprised with it being as intimate as it is within the grand scale,


but that’s historically what opera does best, to tell very intimate stories whether the sense of larger forces or something much bigger than we are is at work. Think of Aida, it’s described as the “ultimate grand opera” but realistically is a very inti- mate drama between a few characters. In any grand opera you can find three or four characters who are in an intimate drama, there seems to be something so vast swallowing them up. We get the sense of grandeur, which I feel is whatMoby- Dick has to offer, a sweeping sense of adventure and grandeur and the vastness of the universe, of the world, with a very intimate human drama going on at the core of it. As a gay man and composer of opera who has dissected and interpreted his every thought, did you have a special kind of relationship with Melville’s tale prior to jumping into the monumental task? I think there are many people who are neither gay nor composers who hold a


deep connection with Melville’s work (chuckles). That’s the amazing thing about his work—it is so vast that so many people feel welcomed and embraced as well as identify within it. Whatever your sexual identity or profession may be—I think that’s the magic and mystery of great art and literature. Many people feel embraced and included, because it says something larger


about humanity. I definitely feel that being a creative artist and composer, as well as a gay American I have my own connection with it. That doesn’t mean it limits anyone else and it certainly doesn’t limit the way I approached the piece. That’s definitely a general perspective I have on the world—I honestly do not analyze my own work, so I don’t know if I have a particularly different perspective that you can hear. (Chuckles) I just know that this is the way I write and this is who I am as a person. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t write this way if I weren’t the person I am today. However, and not to sound arrogant, I do feel I was on fire when I was writing. I


felt great identification with the author—the man himself. I felt deeply connected and times I found myself weeping as I was writing, because I felt so closely con- nected to the spirit of what he was doing or what he may have been feeling as he wrote. That’s part of my job as a composer—to empathize and sympathize with the character and then create spirit behind those characters in which I can hear and feel the music and I felt that throughout the entire piece. How do you feel Melville would perceive your operatic portrayal of his literary classic? I have a feeling he would be rather delighted to know that something that


was based on his material and inspired by his hard work has become something which has delighted and entertained a vast number of people in another form than what he originally wrote. I feel that Melville would be delighted and moved


FEBRUARY 2012 | RAGE monthly 43


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