Monthly Archives: February 2016

SOL3 MIO’s Amazing Hawaii Debut

Sol3 Mio, whose debut album was New Zealand’s 2013 top seller in all genres, wowed their Honolulu audience in a one-night stopover concert Saturday evening, hosted by Hawaii Opera Theatre.

Billing themselves as “classical singers bridging the gap with contemporary” music, Sol3 Mio consists of three Samoan-born New Zealanders — two brothers and a cousin, two tenors and a baritone — who are living a rags-to-riches life.

They grew up singing with their family, in choirs and at rest homes and describe themselves as “the three most unlikely lads to listen to opera.” What made the difference was their voices — and what voices!

The older brother, Darren Pene Pati (he goes by Pene), has a truly spectacular tenor, exceptionally large and classic Italian lyric in style. His voice has a naturally high tessitura, with a bright, forward placement that lends it a champagne quality — light, clear, effervescent.

Of the three singers, Pene is the most comfortable on stage, and it is no surprise he won the audience’s award in the prestigious Placido Domingo Operalia contest. These days, he’s a fellow at the Merola Opera Programme in San Francisco, honing his craft.

His younger brother, Amitai Pati (he goes by Tai), is also a tenor, but of a different type. While also Italian lyric and large, his voice is more like a cabernet — imbued with a mix of colors and warmth. And their cousin, Moses Mackay has a large, “chocolate” baritone — dark, rich, lusciously smooth.

Despite their differences, the three are surprisingly similar in style, technique, and placement, forming e a beautifully matched trio.

Sol3 Mio began the evening with operatic arias but quickly moved to popular works from musical theater and their musical background, many of which appear on their two albums: “Shenandoah,” “Maria” from West Side Story, “Hallelujah,” “You Will Never Walk Alone,” to list just a few.

Throughout, the three kept up a lively banter, clowning around on stage, kidding one another, joking and engaging the audience in sing-alongs for songs such as “That’s Amore” and “Volare” (Dean Martin hits) and “Delilah,” a 1960s murder balled acted out in slo-mo on stage, which had the audience in stitches.

Near the end, the trio turned more serious, talking about their struggles to “make it” in a competitive and sometimes cold world. They shared songs from Samoa and New Zealand and the music that has helped them stay strong, “Fix You” by Coldplay, “I See Fire” from The Hobbit, and their adopted anthem, “O sole mio” (“My sunshine”).

Sol3 Mio became a group on an off-hand suggestion by an audience member, and “O Sole Mio” was the first song the trio sang together. More importantly, “sole” in Samoan means “mate, friend,” so to these three, “O sole mio” means “my mates.”

For the early operatic numbers, Sol3 Mio was accompanied by pianist Noah Lindquist, one of Pene’s mates from San Francisco, and then by recorded accompaniments. But in the latter half, the singers accompanied themselves and each other, displaying impressive versatility. Each singer also played several instruments: Pene was especially adept at the conga drum, and Moses seemed to excel on everything.

The orchestral recordings delivered impact, but the singers performed noticeably more freely with live accompaniments.

Throughout, Sol3 Mio alternated miked and natural singing. Miking is necessarily a question of balance, but for quality of voice, natural singing clearly won out.

Concert production was by Hawaii Opera Theatre’s team, with projections by Adam Larsen and lighting by Peter Dean Beck, both of whom produced this week’s opera, as well.

Sol3 Mio is still a new group, and the three singers, all in their late 20s, are just beginning their careers, which in opera can last half a century or more. Judging by how thoroughly they charmed Saturday’s audience, these three have an exciting path ahead. They certainly deserved Saturday’s enthusiastic standing ovation — let’s hope they have to stop in Hawaii frequently as they travel around the world.

By Ruth Bingham for The Honolulu Star-Advertiser

From The Star-Advertiser: HOT’s ‘Midsummer’ deftly dances among 3 worlds

Hawaii Opera Theatre’s production of Benjamin Britten’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is as wonderful and magical as Shakespeare could have imagined when he created the play more than 400 years ago.

Britten and his partner, Peter Pears, adapted Shakespeare’s play into an opera in 1960, a scant year before Hawaii Opera Theatre staged its first opera. Although HOT and Britten’s “Midsummer” are almost the same age, this is their premiere.

Let’s hope Hawaii doesn’t have to wait another half-century to see this work again!
Even with its many characters, this plot needs no summary. It is convoluted enough that those who know the play will delight in its twists and turns, and those who don’t will have more fun watching it unfold live.

Suffice to say that the tale entangles three worlds — magical fairies (King Oberon, Queen Titania, mischief-maker Puck and a host of fairies); aristocratic lovers (Lysander and Hermia, Demetrius and Helena, Theseus and Hippolyta); and a troupe of tradesmen “rustics” (Quince, Bottom, Flute, Snug, Snout and Starveling, each of whom also plays a role in the play-within-a-play).

The image of entangled underbrush on the opening curtain gives fair warning of what’s to come, but the three worlds are carefully distinguished in every conceivable way — costumes, language, music, voices, setting, lighting, etc. – and the more you seek, the more you find.

Britten’s “Midsummer” is one of the most ensemble of operas, all of its many parts essential to the whole, and HOT presented a tightly-knit cast, each character offering something special.
Britten included as a lead role the fairy chorus, performed by the excellent Hawaii Youth Opera Chorus, directed by Nola Nahulu. The fairies arrived in fantastical costumes in a riot of color, with wigs and wings in all manner of styles, each carrying a single lit candle. Their sweet, natural voices were beautifully shaped and were a highlight each time they appeared.

Paul Mitri, from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, created a delightfully adolescent, gymnastic Puck, one of opera’s few nonsinging lead roles.

As the fairy Queen Titania (Britten’s adaptation spells it “Tytania”), soprano Anne-Carolyn Bird dominated the stage with her bright, clear voice, a perfect fit for her role. Despite the plot, Bird made Titania the ruling fairy.

Daniel Bubeck, as the fairy King Oberon, was a good match physically but had a sweet and light countertenor (the highest of today’s male voices) that disappeared in ensembles, making his character less powerful and menacing than he ought to be. That said, the countertenor is an unusual voice, and Bubeck’s is controlled and exceptionally beautiful.

The four aristocratic lovers were well matched, their solos very good and their ensembles excellent. Their quartet at the beginning of Act III (“And I have found…”) was especially memorable, their vocal lines rising ever higher, blooming into the day’s sunlight.

Each of the six rustics delivered his comic spotlight with aplomb. Nathan Stark (Bottom, Donkey and Pyramus) and Kyle Erdos-Knapp (Flute and the female Thisbe) were unforgettable — but all of them were endearing.

Perhaps the most striking feature of HOT’s production is its design, which focuses attention on the singers and Shakespeare’s words.

The set is a diamond-shaped stepped platform with a semicircle projection screen (cyclorama) behind a floor-to-ceiling transparent curtain, irregularly gathered so that its folds create an uneven pattern of vertical lines. Additions are few (lanterns, a hammock) and open-weave banners descend to become tree trunks, veils and spells that obscure-but-not-quite, so that characters from different worlds share the stage without seeing one another.

Scenes are created through a brilliant combination of video projections designed by Adam Larsen (who also designed last year’s “Siren Song”) and lighting designed by Peter Dean Beck.

Conductor William Lacey crafted a nicely paced performance with the necessary translucence for the score to shine. Singers were audible, phrasing was natural, and although there were some rough moments in the orchestra, there were also many stellar moments.

HOT’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is a richly imagined, beautifully staged production that is not only worth experiencing, but well worth a second visit.

by Ruth Bingham for The Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Feb. 14, 2016

 

Listen Online! Hawaii Public Radio presents A Curious Person’s Guide to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”

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Hawaii Public Radio has been on hand recording interviews and snippets during the rehearsals for HOT’s new production of Britten’s opera, A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Listen to their documentation in this program hosted by HOT’s Simon Crookall online now!

And don’t miss A Midsummer Night’s Dream when it opens on Feb. 12, 2016!

Dream Behind-the-Scenes

We have moved to the Blaisdell Concert Hall and are gearing up for the run of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream on Feb. 12, 14, & 16!  Whet your appetite and enjoy these behind-the-scenes images from the final night run at the HOT Rehearsal Hall.

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