Calgary Opera Announces Participation in New Opera Commission of Moby Dick

January 15, 2008 08-08

For Immediate Release

Calgary Opera Announces Participation in New Opera Commission of American Classic

Calgary ABŠ Calgary Opera is thrilled to announce its participation as a partner in the co-commission and co-production of a new opera by an acclaimed creative team: composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer. Mr. Heggie, whose masterpiece Dead Man Walking (2000, with Terrence McNally) is one of the most frequently performed contemporary operas in the world, and had its Canadian premiere at Calgary Opera in 2006, will create a brand-new work based on a landmark of the 19th century American fiction: Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851).

Moby-Dick is a co-commission and co-production with Dallas Opera, San Deigo Opera, San Francisco Opera and Calgary Opera. It will have its world premiere in Dallas in April/May of 2010 in the Inaugural Season in the much-anticipated Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House at the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts.

"Calgary Opera is thrilled to be participating in this co-commission and co-production with The Dallas Opera, San Diego Opera and San Francisco Opera," says W.R. (Bob) McPhee, General Director and CEO of Calgary Opera. "We have become known as a leader in the development of new works in Canada, having commissioned five new operas, and we look forward to our first collaboration with US partners.

"Calgary audiences responded with great appreciation and enthusiasm when we presented the Canadian premiere of Dead Man Walking in 2006 and we know our community will be excited about Jake Heggie's opera Moby-Dick. We look forward to introducing Calgary and Canada to this operatic version of a great classic as told through Heggie's music and the words of the accomplished librettist Gene Scheer.

"The other wonderful happenstance in this collaboration is that Moby-Dick will open the new Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House in Dallas, as I was a central player in the building of the Francis Winspear Centre for Music in Edmonton, which opened in 1997. I have a great deal of affection and respect for the Winspear family for their most generous support of the arts."

The eagerly anticipated new work will have its world premiere in Dallas in April/May of 2010 with subsequent performances by the other co-producing companies in future seasons.

To access the Dallas Opera announcement of this exciting project, please visit www.dallasopera.org/news/09-10season.pdf

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For further information, please contact: Brian O'Neill, Calgary Opera 403-802-3409, or boneill@calgaryopera.com.