A new opera sung primarily in the Hawaiian language tells the story of Timoteo Ha‘alilio, the royal secretary of Kamehameha III who played a vital role in securing Hawai'i's status as a sovereign nation.
“Kamalehua: The Sheltering Tree” will premiere on May 1 at the Neal S. Blaisdell Concert Hall.
The opera focuses on Ha‘alilio's mission between 1842 and 1845 during trips to the United States, Great Britain, Belgium and France to secure treaties recognizing Hawai‘i as a sovereign nation. Ha‘lilio died of tuberculosis on the voyage back to Hawai‘i.
"Kamalehua" is the first opera sung in 'Ōlelo Hawai‘i to make it to the main stage.
“It's about time,” said Patrick Makuakāne, director and choreographer.
Makuakāne, a kumu hula, said he's never directed opera before. In fact, he wasn't much of an opera fan. But he jumped at the chance to direct a show featuring Hawai‘i’s historical figures.
“This is a story about our nation, our lāhui,” he said. “The music and singing is so incredible. It will grab you and stir you in a way that you've been in any sort of musical presentation. Very different from Hawaiian music."
The cast is made up of 40 chorus members and about 10 principals. It's a mixed group with native and non-native speakers. Some of the cast are local while others are from around the world, according to Makuakāne.
Opera in Ōlelo
On a recent Tuesday at the Hawai‘i Opera Theatre in Downtown Honolulu, the cast rehearsed some scenes while singing the Hawaiian language in harmony. At multiple times during the rehearsal, the conductor halted lines to ensure cast members were pronouncing words correctly.
After each correction, they'd disperse to the sides of the rehearsal room to restart the scene, with some cajoling from the conductor to pick up the pace if they were moving too slow.
Baritone singer Quinn Kelsey plays the role of Timoteo Ha‘alilio. He's been singing opera since he was 13.
“When you think of Hawaiian music, you think of parties and a really relaxed kind of atmosphere,” Kelsey said, referring to how different Hawaiian music is with opera. “In rehearsals, I start singing in ʻŌlelo Hawai‘i, and my voice naturally disconnects from my operatic training. So, I have to stop myself and go ‘Wait. We have to merge these two.’”
Kelsey comes from a musical family. His mom is classically trained and his father is performing in the upcoming opera alongside him.
Opera takes immense vocal training to fill a room with thousands of people, let alone perform for a long period of time — sometimes two to three hours.
Opera singers rolled their Rs in Spanish and Italian repertoires. In ʻŌlelo Hawai‘i, it's more focused on the enunciation.
That can be challenging in opera singing, according to Makuakāne.
“You have to be careful where you’re closing the diphthongs, those vowel sounds get to it right away, then hold the note and not slide for too long,” Makuakāne said.
Queen Lili‘uokalani composed, too
While Hawai‘i's monarchs were immersed in classical music, there hasn’t been an opera composed in the Hawaiian language.
The closest one was an unfinished operetta written in English by Queen Lili‘uokalani, according to DeSoto Brown, the Bishop Museum historian and curator of the archives department.
“We only know that she did this through scattered papers which she wrote by hand,” he said.
The operetta Queen Lili‘uokalani was working on before she died was titled, “Mohailani.”
An operetta is shorter than an opera. It's light-hearted and often theatrical, combining music, dance and spoken dialogue. Whereas opera has a serious tone and is sung throughout the entire performance.
The scattered pages outlining Queen Lili‘uokalani’s operetta are at Bishop Museum and the Hawai‘i State Archives.
While the operetta was written in English, Hawaiian music is also in the pages.
“She could have written her operetta to be in Hawaiian, but she didn’t choose to do so. She chose to write it in English,” DeSoto said. “I’m sure that’s because she was thinking if she ever did complete it, she wanted it to be performed for the widest audience as possible, which would have taken in primarily people who spoke and understood the English language.”
For Quinn Kelsey, he hopes the opera would make the ali‘i proud.
“I hope we would honor them and do right by them,” he said.
The cast of "Kamalehua" is wrapping up its final set of rehearsals. The show runs May 1, 3 and 5 at the Neal S. Blaisdell Concert Hall in Honolulu.
The hall is just across the road from Thomas Square, the site where Hawaiian sovereignty was formally restored on July 31, 1843, after the Paulet Affair when Hawai‘i was briefly seized by a United Kingdom representative. That restoration was made possible in large part by the efforts of Ha‘alilio.
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