ByGeorge F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Out of "Tosca" costume, Sharon Spinetti may not be
prepared to hike Oahu trails, but enjoys the stream behind
the Nuuanu home where she is staying.
Despite the high-flying internationalism of her career, Spinetti is refreshingly down to earth. Recent debuts in new roles and opera houses across Europe and the Americas haven't led to an outsized ego. She remains funny, engaging and modest.
On her fourth visit to Hawaii, Spinetti said she feels at home with the islands and with her HOT colleagues. "It's a real feeling of family here," she said. "The atmosphere is friendly and warm."
In earlier visits, she sang the lead in "La Traviata" and "Il Trovatore," and with her husband, a tenor, she conducted master classes at the University of Hawaii and performed a benefit concert at St. Andrew's Cathedral. To her chagrin, all the work has left little time for sightseeing.
"The energy level is pretty much devoted to the rehearsals and performances. The days off ... you're a dead person."
It's not that her Nuuanu hosts haven't offered to show her around. A trace of self-consciousness about her height has interfered with hiking offers. She usually packs "12-inch heels," and points this out to those who want take her to the mountains.
"You see those pumps over there? I've got those and cowboy boots. Will they work? Unless Nike comes out with a high heeled sneakers ..." she trails off with a hearty laugh.
Despite the happy workplace, deep bruises peppering her pale arms testify to the violence of "Tosca's" storyline. Her character, Floria Tosca, is Rome's leading opera singer in 1800 as Napoleon's armies close in. She finds herself in an emotional and physical tug-of-war between the idealistic revolutionary painter she loves, Cavaradossi, and the unscrupulous police chief, Scarpia, who covets her.
Director Henry Akina has encouraged Spinetti and her fellow cast members to be "unbridled." Hence the black-and-blue marks on her body, which don't seem to bother her at all. They did, however, horrify an HOT board member who saw them and looked ready to call 911. "I'm not abused or anything," she replied, "except by the baritone."
Working with Akina is liberating. "Henry's got a great calm about him ... He'll work with you if he thinks you're not comfortable with a suggestion that he's made ... and we'll come to a compromise where everybody's happy."
Akina doesn't put on the dictatorial airs that some directors do. "So consequently he gets a better response and better product from us because we feel the independence and the freedom.'
Spinetti has nothing but praise for her "Tosca" co-stars and the HOT chorus as well. Previous concert and audition commitments in Switzerland last week required her to miss five days of rehearsal. "My colleagues were very kind about it. I mean they could have easily poisoned my water or put Ex-Lax in my punch."
The gripping story of "Tosca" creates a fierce energy of its own, which has made it a staple of the grand opera repertoire since it premiered in 1900. Composer Giacomo Puccini, after seeing legendary actress Sarah Bernhardt as Tosca in a play, basically lied, cheated and stole to get the rights to the story.
The passion and jealousy that motivated the composer and the character of Tosca still resonate with today's audiences. A bizarre parallel struck Spinetti as she watched Court TV a few years ago. Lorena Bobbitt testified that after her husband's abuse on the now-legendary night in question, she went to get a drink from the fridge, and happened to see a knife lying around.
During Scarpia's violence, Tosca "walks over to the table to calm herself and she sees the knife just like Lorena Bobbitt," mused Spinetti. This comparison led to some unprintably ribald speculation about stunt casting, reorienting Tosca's knife, and tossing over the castle parapet something other than what Puccini prescribed.
Spinetti's own family life is considerably more settled than Tosca's or Lorena's. She, husband Arturo, and 11 year old son Mario live in Karlsruhe, Germany, and vacation in her home state of New York.
They will soon swap home and vacation bases. "My husband and son are ready to move back ... where things are opened 24 hours a day." The magical lure of the 7-Eleven? "Slurpees," she nodded.
Her son traveled with her all the time when he was young. He even joined her onstage, playing her child in a production of "Madame Butterfly." The chief result of this was unexpected. "At 3 years old the crew taught him to play cards in the green room."
She would come back between acts, and "he'd be sitting there playing poker ... in his little kimono."
While her eyes danced talking about Mario, and her good humor pervaded the interview, some aspects of the current opera world bother her. The octopus-like dominance of the Three Tenors, for example. The "sheer commercial circus ... takes everything else with it." She compares young tenors today with the small towns fighting WalMart: The behemoths squeeze out everyone else.
"Pristine and over-manufactured" compact discs create unrealistic expectations. "To me it's not a performance, if you ... have 18 takes for one high note," she said. "To formulate it so that it's just perfect to me is too synthetic and too sterile, and it takes that edge off of what was initially intended."
On a diet of CDs and polished PBS telecasts, concert hall audiences can be unprepared for the rawer, but ultimately more thrilling, live performance. "They think that people don't ever get phlegm in their throat, or delve into chest voice in a moment of passion, or crack, or have to sing under or sing sharp."
Honolulu audiences can look forward to the thrills of both the storyline and the singing in "Tosca," with the dynamic Sharon Spinetti at the drama's swirling center. But keep your eyes on the knife.