FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Hawaii Opera Theatre opens its season tomorrow with the work that put Richard Wagner on the culture map, "The Flying Dutchman."

Season of
Redemption

A ghostly sea captain makes
his plea in HOT’s 2005 opener

The cool weather that arrives with the new year brings with it many pleasures, not least of which is the anticipation of three new productions by the Hawaii Opera Theatre. This year's trio centers on the theme of redemption in three settings that could hardly be more different.

'The Flying Dutchman' Presented by Hawaii Opera Theatre: Where: Blaisdell Concert Hall When: 8 p.m. tomorrow, 4 p.m. Sunday and 7:30 p.m. Tuesday (with two lectures -- an hour and one half-hour -- before each performance) Tickets: $29 to $100, with season subscriptions for all three operas available from $81 to $288 Call: 596-7858, or order online at www.hawaiiopera.org Also: "Susanna" runs 8 p.m. Feb. 11, 4 p.m. Feb. 13 and 7:30 p.m. Feb.15.; "Turandot" runs 8 p.m. Feb. 25, 4 p.m. Feb. 27, 7:30 p.m. March 1, and 7:30 p.m. March 3.

The season-opening work, debuting Friday, is Richard Wagner's "The Flying Dutchman." The composer adapted the legend of a ghostly Dutch sailor (sung by Gary Simpson) condemned to roam the seas for eternity unless he can find a woman willing to give him her love and save his life by sacrificing her own.

The action takes place on the one night in seven years when he is allowed to go ashore to seek redemption.

Senta, the daughter of a Norwegian sailor, is mesmerized by his story and falls in love with him, but not without the protestations of her father and his fellow sailors. The demanding role will be sung in HOT's production by Lori Phillips, a finalist in the Luciano Pavarotti World Vocal Competition and the Chicago Lyric Opera Center Auditions.

The second opera, to be performed Feb. 11-15, is Carlisle Floyd's "Susannah." This work features a very different take on redemption, as the title character, played by Kelly Cae Hogan, is a naive young woman in a small Tennessee town who becomes the object of lust and false accusations by the elders of the village church.

She learns in a devastating way that for some sinners, redemption is not possible.

The libretto, written by the composer himself in 1954, was a not-so-subtle response to the McCarthy hearings rocking the country at that time.

The score features some hauntingly beautiful melodies, notably Susannah's songs "Ain't It a Pretty Night" and "The Trees on the Mountains."

Floyd grew up in South Carolina and put his experience of Appalachia into the composition of this opera.

FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM

The final opera of the 2005 season is Giacomo Puccini's "Turandot," to be performed Feb. 25 through March 3.

The opera is a favorite of Honolulu audiences, with its tale of a heartless Chinese princess (played this year by Karen Huffstedt) whose hand is won by a daring suitor (Warren Mok) willing to risk his life to solve three riddles.

The score features the ever-popular "Nessun dorma," one of the most familiar arias in the repertoire.

The story is problematic because Puccini left the work unfinished at his death in 1924. He had composed himself into a dramatic corner by killing off the sympathetic character of the slave girl Liť (Lea Woods Friedman) and had not yet solved the dilemma of how to win the audience's sympathy for the remaining love interest. Generations of composers and musicologists have tried their hands at a solution to the final scene of the opera, and part of the attraction of any new production is to see how the director brings it to a close.

FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Hawaii Opera Theatre's trio of productions -- "The Flying Dutchman," "Susannah" and "Turandot" -- are all about redemption.

The work was the last of Puccini's career, and in a sense it served as his redemption. While he had written several entertaining operas in the preceding years, it had been decades since he had written anything of the scope or power of "Turandot."

This opera cemented his position as the leading Italian composer of the late Romantic Era while also demonstrating that he could incorporate 20th-century idioms into his musical style. It remains his supreme masterpiece.

HOT's production will be a bit like "old home week," as the cast features four graduates of the University of Hawaii Music Department (Mok, Quinn Kelsey, Jeremy Blossey and James Price), a UH faculty member (Lawrence Paxton) and a former member of the Mae Z. Orvis Opera Studio (Friedman). This season is also distinguished by the talents of HOT's directing staff. All three productions will be staged by resident directors: "Dutchman" and "Turandot" by Henry Akina, and "Susannah" by Karen Tiller.

FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM What would make a woman sacrifice her life for a man?