You are seated in a box at the Varieties Theater, in a large wooden building, part of the audience that has come to see the first opera ever performed in Hawaii. The Honolulu heat is stifling, with no fans or air conditioning to cool the audience. The lighting for the entire house glows from many peanut oil lamps (providing the same primitive lighting onstage as in the audience area). For all of its shortcomings, however, the theater has stage machinery, traps, and wonderful sets. The audience buzzes in anticipation.
There could be no better time for this exciting diversion. Just the year before, the people of Hawaii had endured a devastating smallpox epidemic. With little immunity to the white man’s disease, the native population tragically suffered more than 5,000 deaths. The mood in the town had been grim. This new, operatic entertainment diversion is long overdue.
The expectant audience continues to file in. Many are rowdy sailors from whaling ships docked offshore, searching for entertainment, which is still extremely limited in the Islands. Their natural boisterousness is tempered by a strong police presence.
The first opera ever presented in Hawaii will soon commence: Gaetano Donizetti’s opera set in 1815 in the Swiss Tyrol, The Daughter of the Regiment. (Donizetti wrote the opera in 1840 in Paris. Swedish-American legend Jenny Lind was the first American to sing the part of Marie, in New Orleans in 1843.)
A small troop of artists, led by Californians Emma and Daniel Waller, will perform The Daughter of the Regiment this evening in 1854. The Wallers are a husband-and-wife team who have signed on for a three-and-a-half month season at the Varieties. They will eventually finish their season in Hawaii and continue on to Australia by way of China.
Accompanied by a lone pianist, Emma Waller performs the famous “Rataplan” and three other pieces from the opera, in English. Much of the opera is spoken, as was the custom in English-speaking countries in the mid-19th century. Known for her renditions of English and Irish ballads, Emma struggles with the agile Bel Canto singing the part of Marie requires.
Such was the beginning of opera in one of the most unlikely venues on earth, a tiny chain of islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, 2,500 miles from the nearest opera house in San Francisco and 5,000 miles from Sydney, Australia.
Hawaii’s position at the midpoint of the Pacific has always played a large role in the development of its opera. As the 19th century progressed, the Hawaiian royal family became more educated in western ways, and increasingly enamored with European culture and music, especially opera and operettas. In their travels to the continent, the royals attended many performances. King Kalakaua, who ruled from 1874 to 1891, was dubbed “the Merrie Monarch,” for his lavish entertaining, including classical music, at Iolani Palace. Several monarchs participated in local musical productions; one even sang in the chorus of HMS Pinafore.
One of the great supporters of opera in Hawaii was the last monarch of Hawaii, the tragic figure Queen Lili’uokalani, herself a church organist, who composed the still famous “Aloha Oe” and the beautiful “Queen’s Prayer,” written while she was imprisoned in Honolulu.
A century and a half later, the state of opera in Hawaii is very different. Since 1960, the well-supported and respected Hawaii Opera Theater has delighted audiences with top names from the world of opera, and under the direction of Henry Akina, now features three full productions each year. In 2006, HOT offers an all-Italian season, with Verdi’s Rigoletto, and Puccini’s Il trittico and Tosca.
The Hawaii Performing Arts Festival will bring opera to the Big Island once again Jan. 7, 2006, coming full circle, with Australian soprano Jennifer McGregor performing “Song of the Regiment” from The Daughter of the Regiment. This aria is on the program of HPAF’s “A Musical Evening with Hawaii’s Monarchs,” set to be presented at Kona’s historic Hulihe’e Palace, the longtime summer home of all Hawaiian kings and queens.
