Hunting the whale
Literary epics do not necessarily translate to great operas, but composer Jake Heggie (whose "Dead Man Walking" has proved to be one of the most compelling new operas of the 
past decade) and librettist Gene Scheer appear to have pulled it off with "Moby-Dick," their adaptation of the Herman Melville novel.
The Dallas Opera's debut production of "Moby-Dick," starring Ben Heppner as Ahab, opened on April 30 and runs through May 16 at the city's new Winspear Opera House.
Details from the company's website: http://www.dallasopera.org/the_season/091004-index.php
Sampling the first batch of reviews from . . .
The Dallas Morning News' Scott Cantrell:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/stories/050210dngdmobyrev.4480a44.html
The New York Times' Steve Smith:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/03/arts/music/03moby.html
The Washington Post's Anne Midgette:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-classical-beat/2010/05/moby-dick_premieres_in_dallas.html
The San Francisco Chronicle's Joshua Kosman:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/03/DD101D8M6R.DTL
Heidi Waleson in The Wall Street Journal:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704342604575222100491965876.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines
And George Loomis in The Financial Times:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/419c132a-579d-11df-855b-00144feab49a.html
