Akina has a strong sense of mission about the post he assumed only in August, and an emerging set of blueprints for bringing the HOT into the next millennium. At 41, he has the quiet confidence, impressive international credentials, and strong local roots to get the job done.
Son of a Territorial legislator and a physician, the graduate of Punahou and Tufts has been living and working in Germany for the past 20 years. In 1980, he co-founded Berlin's fourth major opera company, the Berlin Chamber Opera, and served as its artistic and principal stage director.
His primary goals for HOT include increasing its educational role and expanding the repertoire beyond the steady diet of old favorites the company was built on: To "round out our understanding of opera" without abandoning the classics audiences love.
This season, planned before he arrived, features popular operas from the Italian Big Three: Rossini, Verdi and Puccini. Akina is directing the opening production, Puccini's "Tosca."
"I would like to create more depth of repertoire," Akino said, "and at the same time root the community better by reaching out more through the education programs."
Current activities include Opera for Everyone, a full performance of each opera for students from elementary school through college, and the Mini Residency, where the HOT immerses a school in the process of putting on its own opera production.
He hopes that these initiatives "embrace the children of Hawaii (so) that we'll see something like you see in Germany: That everyone has been to the opera as a child. And everyone knows what the coming together of music and theater can mean. And what wonderful feelings that can release in an audience member, as well as in an artist who performs."
Hawaii Opera Theatre's 37th Grand Opera season features three major Italian operas set in locations around the Mediterranean world. Two words summarize the plots of all three: "Love triangle," a subject about which Italian composers seem to know a lot.
"Tosca," Giacomo Puccini's dramatic classic, takes place in Rome during the political tumult of the Napoleonic era. The corrupt police chief, Scarpia, lusts after the beautiful Tosca, who loves a sensitive revolutionary artist, Cavaradossi. Scarpia wields his power over the artist, and forces Tosca to make a bitter choice. The music is some of the most challenging in the operaticrepertoire. Opens Jan. 31; repeats Feb. 2 and 4.
The operas will be sung in Italian, with English supertitles projected above the stage. For tickets or information, call the HOT's box office at 596-7858. Tickets are also available through the Blaisdell box office and the Connection, 545-4000.