Jake Heggie, composer of 'Moby-Dick,' chases his Ahab

Jake Heggie has been seen as the epitome of contemporary American opera composers. That's not necessarily a good thing. Heggie's "Dead Man Walking," written with Terrence McNally, had its premiere in 2000. It was a smashing success. It was toward the start of what has become a wave of recent American operas that have taken well-known works -- "A Streetcar Named Desire" (André Previn), "Little Women" (Mark Adamo) -- and set them to music, to popular acclaim. Some critics, however, deplore the po...