Songs for Moby Dick

Cup of Hemlock Theatre Podcast reviewed Songs for Moby Dick in PART 1 of our 3-part post-festival Review Roundup.

Click link for YouTube, or search for the audio-only version wherever you get your podcasts. TIMESTAMP: 1:26:19

TL;DL: It's exactly what it says on the box. Thompson clearly loves the novel and has a nice voice, but it all washes together into one continuous drone that can make listeners feel unmoored. Not helped by tech issues, making it difficult to always hear the singing over the single keyboard accompaniment.

I read a review either in Toronto Star or Next that said the actor should have had more lighting changes. I beg to differ - I thought the lighting did a lot to create mood and different spaces. It's amazing how much Peter Thompson was able to create by great song writing, an amazing voice, some bare bones set/props and good lighting. I've never read the book because it seemed like too much of a slog to get through, but there's so much in the story and I'm glad I got to see this clever actor bring it to life.

"Songs for Moby Dick" is a sort of staged song cycle drawing on the text of the Melville novel. The performance and staging are very good but the music fell short of what I expect in a contemporary song cycle. That's the perspective of an opera/music reviewer and may not be everyone's experience.

Full review at the link

Outstanding vocals and fun energy, a great way to appreciate this timeless classic in an evocative musical format.

SONGS FROM MOBY DICK Composed and performed by Peter Thompson An Ubu Opera production

As I have written before, one person shows are the cornerstone of the Fringe festival movement. Most are storytelling pieces, often drawn from personal experience, while others rely on self-deprecating humour in the form of stand-up comedy. This production, however, is something entirely different.

It is a serious work of contemporary classical music. Peter Thompson, who composed the score and performs the piece, is a powerful baritone who has appeared frequently with the Brott Music Festival in Hamilton. A classically trained singer, he brings a rich, resonant voice and commanding stage presence to the performance.

Thompson has adapted one of the most admired works of nineteenth century North American literature, Herman Melville's MOBY-DICK. It is the story of Captain Ahab's all-consuming obsession with hunting and destroying the great white whale, Moby Dick. The novel has long stood as one of literature's greatest explorations of humanity's struggle against nature and the destructive power of obsession.

As in Melville's novel, the story is told through the eyes of the imperfect narrator Ishmael. Thompson fully inhabits the role, guiding the audience through the tale with precision and emotional restraint over the course of this sixty-minute performance.

The original song cycle is dark and uncompromising, using the stage as an arena of the imagination. The production is dominated by a towering mast and hanging sail, while lighting designer Sebastian Marziali creates an atmosphere that evokes the dim, oil-lit world of the nineteenth century. The lighting is intentionally subdued, reflecting the harsh northern seas where much of the story unfolds.

Dora Award-winning director Adam Paolozza stages the work with great imagination, combining carefully choreographed movement, mime, and the impressive technical resources of the venue. The word that kept returning to my mind throughout the performance was "atmospheric." Every theatrical element works together to create an immersive world.

Theatre Passe Muraille is serving this year as the home of original Canadian musicals, with all eight productions at the venue exploring different approaches to musical theatre.

This production stands apart, and that is very much to its credit. You will not leave the theatre humming the melodies. Thompson's score is closer in spirit to twentieth century composers such as Charles Ives or Dmitri Shostakovich than to Broadway. After all, no one walks out of a Mahler symphony humming the tunes.

Peter Bellamy's folk opera THE TRANSPORTS came to mind as I watched this production because both works are rooted in the seafaring world of the nineteenth century. The difference is that Bellamy drew upon traditional sailors' songs as his musical language, while Thompson remains firmly grounded in the vocabulary of modern opera.

Having said all of that, I highly recommend this production. It is an ambitious and serious work that deserves a wider audience. While it may not resemble what most people expect from a musical, it is an accomplished piece of music theatre. Toronto has a large and knowledgeable audience for classical music, and I hope they discover this remarkable production.

Songs for Moby Dick: - Came in as a fan of the book, and a literary fan in general - Very faithful to the book... Maybe too faithful? - I would have liked to hear the vocals more clearly; the sound/score overwhelms the vocals - Great, if you want a pat on the back for having read the book (which I tried to re-read ahead of time....and failed) - Still decent, and glad I saw the show

Despite rich source material and great talent and effort, this musical is becalmed by some problems. Though billed as “songs” for Moby Dick, the capable operatic singing and musical accompaniment don’t gel into distinct songs. The lyrics stay too true to the original text when some creative reinterpretation and rearrangement would have been welcome. Finally, the excellent vocal performance delivered without a mic was sometimes drowned out by a too-powerful score (though this may have been corrected since the premiere performance).