Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 23, Number 9, 1 September 2006 — Hawaiian Opera [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Hawaiian Opera

By Sterling Kini Weng Publicatiūns Editur In October, Tau Dance Theatre will premiere its highly anticipated Hawaiian Iopera, based on the traditional story that explains why the flower of the native naupaka shrub only has half of its petals. After working on Naupaka - A Hawaiian Love Story for three years, Tau Dance Theatre's artistic director, Peter Rockford Espiritu, will finally present the opening of the opera at the Leeward Community College Theatre on Oct. 7, then take it on a tour of Maui and Hawai'i island. He said he hopes to eventually schedule performances at venues on the remaining islands. Naupaka recounts the famed mo 'olelo of two lovers from different social classes who were forced to separate. One became the naupaka found on the beach, the other the shrub found in the

mountains. Eaeh plant's blossom appears to be cut in half, only making a complete flower when the two are placed next to eaeh other. But the naupaka story has never before been told with the flair, pageantry and innovation of an Espiritu production. Espiritu, a Native Hawaiian trained in hula, classical ballet and modern dance, is perhaps best known for his 2003 eollaboration with Hālau o Kekuhi on Hānau ka Moku, a highly acclaimed performance blending hula and modern dance. In Naupaka, Espiritu eombines Western performance elements, like orchestra, chorus and ballet, with such Hawaiian forms as oli, falsetto and slack key. Translated by Puakea Nogelmier and Ka'upena Wong, the threeact show is preformed entirely in Hawaiian, with English titles running on a projector above the stage.

Tau Dance Theatre's version of the naupaka story also has one unusual twist: the lead character, Naupaka, is a male and his lover a female. Espiritu said he gathered numerous accounts of the story, both oral and written, and the one constant was that Naupaka was a wahine and her beau was a kāne. But Nogelmier discovered a genealogy of Naupaka recorded in the 19th century by historian Abraham Fornander, who notes that Naupaka was the son of the sky god Wākea. Espiritu uses that genealogy, including the other character names contained within it, as the basis for his opera. He stresses, however, that Naupaka is just his retelling of a very famous story. "I don't expect this to be the last word," he said. "This is only one version, and we did our best to substantiate it." S

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- Photo: Courtesy of īau Dance Theatre