The Dallas Opera is joining forces with the Texas Book Festival and SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts to preview the opera’s world-premiere production of Moby-Dick. To help prepare audiences for the adaptation of Herman Melville’s epic novel, the Dallas Opera is presenting a series of free panel discussions, talks and Q&As in March called “From Page to Stage: The Operatic Journey of Moby-Dick.”

• “Melville, the Man” (March 27, 2 p.m., SMU’s Caruth Auditorium) will feature Melville scholar T. Walter Herbert (Moby-Dick and Calvinism) and Duncan Osborne, Melville’s great-grandson, with moderator Shields-Collins Bray.

• “Melville, the Inspiration” (March 27, 3:15 p.m., Caruth Auditorium) will feature Moby-Dick composer Jake Heggie, librettist Gene Scheer and a “‘special singer,” along with readings from the novel by Michael Connolly, SMU’s head of acting.

Both of these sessions will be followed by Q&As and then a casual reception.

• Finally, Art&Seek’s Jerome Weeks (him again) will moderate a discussion, “Melville: In the Heart of the Sea” (March 28, 4 p.m., Hamon Hall at the Winspear Opera House) with Gene Scheer and historian Nathaniel Philbrick, author of the National Book Award-winning In the Heart of the Sea, his account of the real-life whaling catastrophe that partly inspired Melville. This last discussion is an exclusive donor/subscriber event. Because seating is limited, reservations are required.  214-443-1044.