This was my third Jake Heggie opera, and it’s my least favorite. Last year I saw Moby-Dick at the Met and Dead Man Walking in San Francisco. Both were weirdly wonderful in their own ways, so I went into Intelligence with high hopes. I also did something I never do with modern operas: I invited friends. The stakes were high.
The good news is that my friends enjoyed it and may even be willing to attend another opera. The bad news is that I did not. It’s actually difficult to pinpoint exactly why I didn’t like it. The orchestra sounded great under Brandon Eldredge’s baton, and Jacqueline Echols McCarley as Mary Jane absolutely carried the show vocally and emotionally.
I think my main issue was the story itself. I can handle tough subject matter: Dead Man Walking opens with a horrific assault and murder, after all. I also knew that the story of an enslaved woman acting as a spy during the Civil War wouldn’t exactly be light fare. But this felt like it veered into trauma for trauma’s sake. The opera is based on a real woman, but much of her life is lost to history, so librettist Gene Scheer had to invent significant portions. In my opinion, some of those choices felt designed to smack the audience in the face rather than illuminate the bravery of a complicated woman navigating an impossible time. I also felt the ending undercut the heroism Mary Jane had displayed throughout the opera.
I was more ambivalent about the music. Heggie incorporated a variety of styles: blues, gospel, and a heavy emphasis on drums and percussion. Some of it worked beautifully. Some of it pushed the singers into belting territory that felt more musical theater than opera. With such a robust orchestra pit, there were moments when the vocal lines struggled to rise above the sound.
One of the central metaphors of the production was quilting, with traditional quilt blocks framing the stage. This delighted me more than perhaps it should have, since I am an avid quilter in addition to being an opera fanatic. As we left, one of my friends told me I had tricked him into seeing an opera about quilting. I hadn’t set out to do that, but I can’t entirely deny it.
I do want to give a shout-out to Houston Grand Opera, which commissioned Intelligence and premiered it in 2023 and won a Grammy this year for the recording. HGO consistently pushes new work into the world, and that deserves recognition, even if this particular piece didn’t resonate with me.
Opera: Intelligence
Composer: Jake Heggie
Venue: Virginia Opera
Date: February 15, 2026
Link: https://vaopera.org/intelligence/
Opera Nerd 
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