MOBY-DICK

In this production of Herman Melville's tale of a tragic whale hunt, narrator Anthony Heald not only creates vivid characterizations—Captain Ahab's gruff mania, Starbuck's doubtful sensitivity, the prophet Elijah's visionary shakiness—he also dramatizes the many moods of the PEQUOD crew and the mercurial ocean itself. Heald's voice has the range of a piano, and he uses it like a virtuoso. In one minute his reading can move from slow and languid, reflecting a dreamy day at sea, to alert and brisk, evoking the suspense of a whale sighting. Heald's voice bristles dryly with humor or sinks with dread—a range necessary to tell this complex story of a man's obsession with conquering an enigmatic white whale. R.L.G. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 2009]