An epic white whale hunt, from Melville's Moby Dick , comes to life in a concert-fiction blending orchestral surge, sound effects and breathless narration.
When young Ismaël embarks as a sailor on the Péquod, he has no idea what awaits him: the mad pursuit of a tyrannical captain in search of the whale that bit off his leg... A France Culture creation, freely adapted by Stéphane Michaka.
The request
After a first series of performances in October 2019 at the Maison de la Radio et de la Musique (Paris), the Opéra National de Lyon has contracted with Radio France Studios to reprise the concert-fiction created by France Culture within its establishment with its own orchestra.
Our response
- Diffusionof the concert-fiction in Lyon on May 6 and 7, 2026
- Adaptation of the show to the specificities of the venue, and with a new orchestra
Note from the adapter, Stéphane Michaka
For this radio adaptation, I've favored the more confrontational scenes and others more conducive to reverie. Melville is one of the great - perhaps the greatest - of the American Romantics, and the 19th century taught us that reverie is inseparable from the life drive. For me, the fifteen scenes I've adapted and translated from the original form the tragic, dreamlike core of the novel. They can only give a glimpse of the excessiveness of Melville's novel. But a symphony orchestra; a young composer haunted by romanticism; a cast blanched under the harness of orchestral swells... What more could you want to hear the heartbeat of the White Whale?
