But by last August a workshop version of 'Moby-Dick' was mounted by the San Francisco Opera, one of its five co-commissioners and a company where Mr. His original librettist, the playwright Terrence McNally, had to withdraw for health reasons, and nearly all of an early draft of the opera was junked by the composer in late 2008. Heggie was first approached by Dallas Opera to write a work for the company's inaugural season at the Winspear. The opera's creators have had their own long journey since Mr. And, thanks to projections on those big sails, they can also savor the whaler's long journey from the North Atlantic to the South Pacific. So audiences can watch the crew of the Pequod (singers as well as expert climbers) scamper up rigging. Their mise-en-scène incorporates both traditional stage spectacle and the latest in 21st-century opera-house technology. Rounding out the production team and effecting the creators' shared vision are the designers Robert Brill, sets Jane Greenwood, costumes Donald Holder, lighting and Elaine J. Thus beyond depicting life aboard the whaler Pequod, any staging of the novel requires convincing re-creations of the sea's terrors and the crew's mad hunt for the great white whale that drives the action. But unlike Britten's opera, where the drama is confined to clashes between characters, 'Moby-Dick' also probes man's conflict with the natural world. Like Benjamin Britten's 'Billy Budd'-based on a novella by Melville-this opera takes place entirely at sea. The requirements of the tale are daunting.

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