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Hawaii Opera Theatre kicks off its
By Ruth O. Bingham
first season this century by taking
on Richard Wagner's epic
'Tristan and Isolde'
Special to the Star-BulletinHAWAII Opera Theatre has had good luck with the work of Richard Wagner in the past and "Tristan und Isolde" was a next logical step in broadening the repertoire. It is the first-time the opera has been performed in Hawaii, and it fulfills a vital part of HOT's mission -- to broaden audience horizons by confronting the community with important works.
"There are those who believe that 'Tristan' is the most important and enigmatic opera ever written. It is a work of incredible depth, passion, and musical color," says Henry Akina, Hawaii Opera Theatre's general and artistic director and director and producer of "Tristan."
" 'Tristan' is a tall order for a company this size, but I hope we're rising to the challenge."
Conductor Ivan Törzs, for one, is excited about the task. "You could make a case of 'Tristan' being the single greatest opera, perhaps the single greatest work of art, of the 19th century.
"What makes it such a revolutionary piece is definitely the music," he says. "It's not important to me for the listener to leave 'Tristan' with much more ... than a basic understanding of the plot. I would hope, and this is much more difficult, that the listener would leave, having been not only touched, but somewhat shaken up by the music.
"There are certain operas in which the orchestra plays largely an accompanying role (to) the singers," Törzs says, but in "Tristan," "the orchestra is absolutely of equal importance to the singers. Because of the complicated and nuanced orchestration, there are any number of colors which must be brought out to detail and highlight what's happening on stage.
ON STAGE
What: Hawaii Opera Theatre's production of Richard Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde"
HOT TOO
"Having said that ... I do not at all hear the piece as kind of a symphonic poem with voices. The singers, 90 percent of the time, are still the important line. But it's an accompaniment of such sophistication that you find in very, very few other pieces. What does that mean for this orchestra? Well, it just means a lot of work, you know?"
Törzs is no newcomer to such work. He first became interested in opera in his mid-teens, but did not devote himself to opera full time until after receiving a diploma from Princeton University in mathematics. For the past six years, Törzs has been general music director of the Mecklenburg State Theatre in Schwerin, Germany.
This will be Törzs' third production of "Tristan."
The HOT production is the most heavily cut version he has ever conducted.
Akina and Törzs discussed and carefully chose the cuts as a team, "We looked at any number of cuts that have been done at other opera companies, some of which, I must say, were absolutely horrendous ... . I'm quite happy with what we came up with."
Before making a final decision, Akina and Törzs discussed musical cuts with Wolfgang and Gudrun Wagner, grandson of Richard Wagner and his wife, who are in town for HOT's opening night. The Wagners "have been very kind in telling us ... what traditions are important, but at no time have they said what we must do," says Akina.
Törzs underscores, "We did not run specific cuts by (Wolfgang Wagner). I know his stand on this question: Wolfgang Wagner is a very practical man of the theater, which is the kind of person I like to deal with."
Akina admits, "cutting 'Tristan' is not usually done these days in bigger houses, but we didn't really think we could perform a 5-hour opera here: we are a regional theater. Our "Tristan" is about 3-plus hours of music, plus 40 minutes intermission, so that makes (about) a 4-hour evening."Partly as a way to intensify the opera's significance for Hawaii's audience, Akina views "Tristan" "as a voyage, an important metaphor for almost all cultures, and especially important here in Polynesia. We have set each of the three acts ... in a space that resembles a ship. It is a ship that passes from one state to another, carrying the lovers to their final destiny. 'Tristan' can be seen as a rite of passage, from love, to death, to transfiguration."
Although Akina's interpretation does not greatly affect how Törzs conducts the music, he does understand it: "The voyage is an undeniable element of 'Tristan' and it's an element he's chosen to highlight."
But to Törzs, "for all the philosophical and deep emotional content of the piece, and I may not win a lot of friends by saying this, I have always thought of 'Tristan' as a little bit of a soap opera. To me, it's a love story: boy meets girl; boy kills girl's old boyfriend and cuts his head off and sends her the head; girl gets angry but loves the guy anyway; girl has to marry the king, but boy and girl are in love and get caught with their pants down, so to speak; boy dies and girl gets transfigured. To me, with all the embellishments, it's (still) a love story.
"Like all great works of art, I think you get out of it what you put into it. If you know nothing about the piece, you may have a lovely evening without thinking much more about it, or you may take a little nap in the middle of Act II. ... (But) if you take time to get acquainted with the piece, the rewards are there. And (if you) learn the score and know every note in the score, the rewards are immeasurable.
"A great deal of the intricacy, ... most of the public won't grasp, but if you're a musical person, you'll have a certain instinctive reaction to it, which is enough."
This is Törzs' third time conducting an HOT opera. "It's been a pleasure being here and working with the orchestra. They've done very brilliantly.
"One of the strengths of the company is that it's simply always a pleasure to work here, not only because of the good weather, but the welcome you get, the way people are, the friendliness ... . That sounds like just compliments, but any professional knows how important that is. There are a lot of opera companies that are just," he hesitates, "very cold."
Another of HOT's strength is "they do a lot of outreach, preparing the public for the piece, which is terribly important, and also something that is neglected by a lot of opera companies. I think Henry (Akina) has done a wonderful job upholding and improving artistic standards here. He's got a very international eye and ear, which is important particularly for a regional company that is as isolated as this one."
One perennial problem with Wagner that is no better or worse here than elsewhere is the orchestration: its "shag carpet of sound" has a history of drowning out its singers. Working with about 70 musicians "rented" from the Honolulu Symphony, as he puts it, Törzs admits "it's always a problem. And it's more and more of a problem today because recordings get better and better and people go to an opera house ... with the expectation of hearing what they hear at home on their CD player, which is just not possible."
There are, however, "tricks of the trade," as Törzs explains. "Sometimes, you just have to have the orchestra play a little softer; sometimes, you have to ask the stage director to place the singers somewhat advantageously because, as all singers know, there's always a so-called 'sweet spot' on the stage. They all know where it is and they all run over there because they know that's where they sound good. And sometimes, you just have to live with the fact that the orchestra is going to drown the singers out. It happens. That's life."
In addition to "Tristan", and as part of the Wagner conference, Törzs will accompany soprano Janis Martin, who sang in Elektra at HOT last year, in the Wesendoncklieder, which were composed as preliminary sketches for "Tristan," and will perform some 4-hand pieces by Emanuel Chabrier with Kathy Olsen, which he described as irreverent reworkings of themes from "Tristan."
Once he leaves Honolulu, Törzs will fly to Antwerp, Belgium, to conduct a concert with the Royal Flemish Orchestra, and then Janis Martin is joining him in Schwerin to sing three performances of "Tristan."
"Tristan" is, of course, only the first opera of HOT's season.
"Tristan" is a new work for a new century and the most radical; Rossini's "Barber of Seville" is a comedy; and Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" is the first opera they did here and is especially dear to Hawaii. It's the opera most often done here, this will be the seventh production.
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