Moby-Dick, San Francisco Opera, Oct. 30 2012

What’s the chance that I’ll ever get to see Moby-Dick again? It’s definitely worthy of entering the standard repertoire, but there’s a lot of competition for relatively few slots in San Francisco Opera’s schedule, and it probably requires more resources than an regional company can muster. So, back to the War Memorial Opera House, this time in less-expensive seats that nevertheless have great sound.

The staging, of course, was the same as reported earlier.

Our cast:
Captain Ahab: Jay Hunter Morris (a.k.a. Jayhab) 
Greenhorn (Ishmael): Stephen Costello
Starbuck: Morgan Smith     
Queequeg: Jonathan Lemalu 
Pip: Talise Trevigne 
Flask: Matthew O’Neill     
Stubb: Robert Orth     
Conductor: Patrick Summers     
Director: Leonard Foglia     
Set Designer: Robert Brill

And the performance was very much the same as reported earlier, with the exception that I came away even more impressed by Morgan Smith’s Starbuck. I’d sure like to hear him again in a more familiar role. Give it a notch above a beta.