Monthly Archives: March 2017

Fashionably HOT – ACT II: A Fashion Reprise Pop-Up Returns this Spring

Fashionably HOT – ACT II: A Fashion Reprise Pop-Up Returns this Spring

Hawaii Opera Theatre (HOT) presents the Spring Pop-Up of ACT II: A Fashion Reprise.

In recent years, ACT II has raised over $100,000 in support of HOT, the Fall Pop-Up format following a very popular Spring Pop-Up series held earlier this year. This event provides the opportunity to shop for couture and designer apparel, handbags, shoes, jewelry, art, home accents, and more with the proceeds going to service the non-profit organization.  HOT receives the goods for ACT II from the generous donations of its Supporters.   Many of the items are brand new and still have price tags on them. 

A Special Preview Evening will be held on April 6 (5pm- 9pm) for those interested in previewing the new Act II collection.  The Preview Party experience includes pupus & wine, with a cost of $30/person.  RSVP to Courtney Coston at (808) 596-7372 ext. 200.  Space is limited. 

ACT II opens to the public on April 7 (9:00am – 6:00pm) and 8 (9:00am -5:00pm).  The ACT II Pop-Up will be held at the ACT II Pop-Up Shop, located in Hawaii Opera Plaza, Suite 310, at 848 S. Beretania Street.  Parking is available at the building and street parking where available.

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser Review: A magnificent Three Decembers

So that’s how it’s done. That’s how you tell a story that’s funny, sad, sweet, heart-wrenching, and real, all at the same time.

That and more is what Hawaii Opera Theatre’s staging of “Three Decembers” has managed to accomplish. It opened Friday for a weekend run at Hawaii Theatre before heading off to the neighbor islands, the first time HOT has created a “touring production.”

‘THREE DECEMBERS’

Where: Hawaii Theatre

When: 8 p.m. today, 4 p.m. Sunday

Cost: $30-$90

Info: hawaiitheatre.com or 528-0506; hawaiiopera.org or 596-7858

>> “Three Decembers” will also be performed Wednesday at Kahilu Theatre, Hawaii island, $20-$75, kahilutheatre.org or 808-885-6868; March 31 at Kauai Community College in Lihue, $25 and $45, hawaiiopera.org or 808-596-7858; and April 1 at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center in Kahului, $30-$60, mauiarts.org or 808-242-7469. Visit hawaiiopera.org for info.

>> “Three Decembers” composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer will discuss their work 30 minutes before today’s performance. Director Karen Tiller will speak before Sunday’s performance. Heggie and Scheer will also appear before the Hawaii island performance.

The hook for this show is the Hawaii debut of mezzo soprano Frederica Von Stade, an artist of the highest rank. Over most of the last 45 years, she has performed in all of the world’s major opera houses and concert halls, usually as the star attraction.

In this production, however, Von Stade, as they would say in the commercials, was no star, she merely played one — and played it to perfection. She was completely believable as Broadway actress Maddie Mitchell, a diva in the worst sense of the word. Yet as wonderful as Von Stade’s characterization was, it was matched beautifully by the acting and singing of her fellow cast members: baritone Keith Phares, who plays Maddie’s troubled son Charlie, and soprano Kristin Clayton, who plays her suffering, suffocated daughter Bea.

The three comprised the original cast from “Three Decembers,” which premiered in 2008 in Houston and Berkeley, Calif. They’re so comfortable in the roles that even a slight miscue on stage, involving a shoe, was smoothly and perfectly ad-libbed into the performance.

Together, they virtually disappeared into their roles. Phares, through body language alone, conveyed Charlie as alternately exasperated with, then sympathetic, then protective of his mother as the story unfolds over a 30-year span, each scene occurring in December. Clayton too was multi-dimensional as Bea, her face basking in the glow of her mother’s celebrity, quick to show anger when mention of her long-deceased father surfaces, and explosive when the bottle bests her self-control.

Meanwhile, Von Stade’s vain, self-centered, yet vulnerable Maddie had some in the mesmerized audience making comparisons to a Meryl Streep performance. (I also felt a bit of Doris Roberts’ character from “Everybody Loves Raymond” – the mom pushing all the buttons, especially when Charlie’s homosexuality was broached).

The family dynamic was so realistic that perhaps only young children who still idolize their parents might think it rings untrue. (Given some of the language, it’s not suitable for them anyway.) We’ve all had problems with our parents, just as we love them. We’ve all fought with our siblings, just as we’ve also gone to them for comfort – and to share joke or two at the expense of our parents.

Guest director Karen Tiller’s terrific direction had Maddie’s dysfunctional family battling out their issues with everything from subtle gestures and casual asides to pitched battles. It was entirely convincing, even with much left to the imagination. When, for example, Bea complains about her own appearance, saying she looks like “a middle-aged mom with two kids in college,” Charlie cracks “You are.” Phares is actually off stage when he says this, and yet you can feel the smirk on his face.

Of course, “Three Decembers” is an opera, and this review has gotten this far without mentioning the music. That is only because composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer’s score is so effective that it too seems to disappear into the story. On its own, however, the music has moments of magnificence: Maddie’s Broadway-like ballad “Daybreak” when she reminisces about her time in Europe with her long-deceased husband, the subject of her horrible secret; Charlie’s rant over his mother’s failure to acknowledge his partner, saying “She calls him Kurt. His name is Burt”; Charlie and Bea’s sweet duet “Father’s chair,” at attempt to conjure up their father from childhood memories. The score also includes plenty of dissonant, jagged sections, especially when the spectre of AIDS arises – the unseen Burt has it, and Maddie can’t deal with it. It was all ably performed by the small ensemble of musicians, led by conductor Adam Turner, after a bit of balance issues in the opening moments.

The singing itself? Beyond tremendous. I simply have not heard singing so uniformly excellent, so authentically expressive before. In acoustically challenged Hawaii Theatre, with no supertitles and no mikes, the story was easy to follow, the jokes funny, the verbal jousting bitter, the moments of sharing wistful and tender.

Von Stade, at age 71, still has an effortless projection that has long enabled her to connect with an audience. Phares’ baritone is powerful throughout the range, with fantastic diction, and Clayton’s voice had all the emotional qualities needed for her demanding role. Their unison when singing together was spot on.

This is the first time that Von Stade, Phares and Clayton have performed “Three Decembers” together since the premiere performances nine years ago, and the changes in life and career that have occurred since then undoubtedly were reflected in this performance. With tastes that change, careers that evolve and schedules that get increasingly demanding, a reunion like this never happens in opera. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see a production of such caliber, imbued with such depth.

Go see it.

By Steven Mark, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Three Decembers Cast

Video: Three Decembers Cast

Frederica von Stade, Kristin Clayton, and Keith Phares reunite for the first time since premiering Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers (2008, Houston Grand Opera). Hear what the three have to say about returning together for the Inter-Island Tour of HOT’s production of Three Decembers.  

Frederica von Stade at Hawaii Opera Theatre

Video: Frederica von Stade

Frederica von Stade

Frederica von Stade (Flicka) – the star of Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers – sat down with HOT to talk about this weekend’s production, Jake Heggie’s music, and her own favorite singer.

Who is it? Here’s a hint: The artist is from Houston, Texas – the same place Three Decembers originally debuted in 2008.

Watch to find out!

Three Decembers – Short from Hawaii Opera Theatre on Vimeo.

Karen Tiller Three Decembers

Karen Tiller on HPR’s The Conversation

Karen Tiller, the director of Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers, stopped by Hawaii Public Radio on Monday morning for The Conversation with Beth-Ann Kozlovich and Chris Vandercook.

Karen shared what she loves about the piece, how it’s different from other operas she’s directed, and she gave behind-the-scenes insights into the rehearsal process. 

It’s true to life. That’s one of the things that makes this production so interesting to me as a director. It’s very conversational, it’s very modern, and it’s very in-the-moment. It’s very much like our own families – good things and bad things. There’s dysfunction in every family, there’s secrets in every family, and the process of sort of peeling back the layers of relationships as we go through these three decades is very interesting dramatically… The audience will become engaged from the very beginning, because it feels real.” – Karen Tiller

Check out the podcast of the show online here!
HorLogoPlain copy

 

More on Karen Tiller:

Ms. Tiller has directed several critically acclaimed HOT productions including:  Susannah, Jun Kaneko’s Madama Butterfly, The Pearl Fishers, and the 2013 production of Turandot.  Other notable productions in her career include Sweeney Todd at HOT, The Turn of the Screw at Opera Memphis and Orpheo et Euridice at OFNJ. Before directing, Ms. Tiller served as HOT’s Executive Director for almost ten years, leaving that role in 2013 to take on the challenging position of mother to Sophia, adding Eli in 2016. In addition to directing for HOT, Karen serves as Treasurer for the national board of the Joyful Heart Foundation and sits on the board of the Rehabilitation Hospital of the Pacific.  Ms. Tiller also serves as an Oahu Commissioner for the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts.

 

Composer’s Notes – Three Decembers by Jake Heggie

“All in all, isn’t life simply grand? I’m so awfully glad I showed up for it.” (Madeline Mitchell in Three Decembers)  

Shortly after the premiere of my first opera Dead Man Walking in 2000, the librettist – the great American playwright Terrence McNally – mentioned a short script he’d written for an AIDS benefit in 1999. He gave me a copy of Some Christmas Letters (and a Couple of Phone Calls) and from the first words, the story sang to me. It felt true, honest, emotionally big, and exactly what I was looking for as a chamber opera. I started sketching musical ideas in the margins and knew I wanted to compose it for the great, inspiring American mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade. She and I have a rich history of collaborating, and by then I’d already written many songs for her as well as a major role in Dead Man Walking. She was on board right away.   

A brief but powerful fourteen pages long, the script is about the stormy, emotional lives of a famous stage actress named Madeline Mitchell and her two adult children, Bea and Charlie. The script was created for an AIDS benefit at Carnegie Hall in New York and was performed one time only by the astonishing cast of Julie Harris (Madeline), Cherry Jones (Bea) and Victor Garber (Charlie). Told through letters and phone calls, the story follows these characters through three decades of their lives.  

It is a play about identity and family, discovering the truth of who we are and who our parents are. Hovering over it all is the difficult, tense history of the AIDS crisis in America. Houston Grand Opera and San Francisco Opera co-commissioned the piece as a chamber opera that could be done in different sized venues with three singers and 11 instrumentalists all onstage together.  

I first read the script in 2001, but due to several detours it wasn’t until 2007 that librettist Gene Scheer and I were finally able to get going. It was our first opera collaboration. Taking this 14-page script and turning it into a viable opera was a big leap requiring imagination, invention and vision, all of which Gene has in spades. He enlarged the story and gave it dramatic conflicts and actions not found in the original script; he also invented the big family secret at its core. After considering several titles for the opera, we settled on Three Decembers.  

With Gene’s clear libretto, I was able to compose the opera in about six months. The flavor of musical theater heard throughout is due to the dominance of Madeline Mitchell, the famous Broadway star who is also the matriarch of this family. Though Bea and Charlie each have their own musical personalities, Madeline’s influence and gravitational pull is inevitable.  

The premiere of Three Decembers took place at Houston Grand Opera’s Cullen Theater on Feb. 29, 2008 with Frederica von Stade (Madeline), soprano Kristin Clayton (Bea) and baritone Keith Phares (Charlie). The cast reunited later that year for a production by San Francisco Opera at UC Berkeley. Though Three Decembers has now received some 20 international productions, the production here in Hawaii is the first to reunite that spectacular, indelible, dazzling original cast.  

 Jake Heggie for Hawaii Opera Theatre

 

 

Food, Drinks, and Opera

Three Decembers Packages: Food, Drinks, & Opera!


Accompanying HOT’s upcoming production of Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers are two, separate pre-show event packages:

GenHOT presents The Three Decembers Opening Night Party at Bethel Union for Young Professionals (45 and under)!
Friday, March 24, 6 pm – 9:30 pm
At Bethel Union 

Event Description:
The GenHOT Advisory Board, a collective of young professionals passionate about the Arts scene in Honolulu, are inviting their peers to join HOT for the Opening Night of Jake Heggie’s modern opera, Three Decembers. Start the evening at one of Honolulu’s coolest new restaurants, Bethel Union, indulging in drinks and pupus and networking with other young professionals who share a love for Art. Then move across the street to the historic Hawaii Theatre for the opening night performance of Three Decembers, starring America’s leading Mezzo-Soprano, Frederica von Stade.

$45 per person includes drinks, pupus, and opera seats

 

HOT OUT – Three Decembers
Saturday, March 25, 6 pm – 9:30 pm
At Rain Honolulu

Event Description:
Join the Hawaii Opera Theatre for its third annual special event for Hawaii’s LGBTQ community and friends, HOT Out, featuring Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers.  From 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm, guests will enjoy quality drinks and pupus at the new restaurant Rain Honolulu, followed by top-price seats to the opera Three Decembers from 8 pm to 9:30 pm next-door at the Hawaii Theatre Center. The 90-minute opera features one of opera’s greatest stars, Frederica von Stade, and it tells the tale of a fading actress, an alcoholic daughter, and a grieving gay son.

 $100 per person includes drinks, dinner, and top-price opera seats

ACT II – Spring 2017

We are currently accepting donations.  Clothing, accessories and home goods (no records, music or books are accepted).

Preview Night
Thursday, April 6
5PM-9PM
$30 entry fee (includes light pupu and wine)
Be the first to see new things that have been recently donated.
 
Friday, April 7
9AM – 6PM

Open to the public

Saturday, April 8
9AM – 5PM

Open to the public

ACT II will be held at the ACT II Pop-Up Shop located at Hawaii Opera Plaza, 848 S. Beretania Street, Suite 310.
 
To RSVP for Preview Night call 596-7372.

Three Decembers Inter-Island Tour and Special Events with Hawaii Public Radio

Frederica von Stade makes her HOT Debut in Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers, which opens on March 24, 25, & 26 at the historic Hawaii Theatre in the heart of Honolulu.

Then HOT makes its company debut on the Big Island and Kauai, staging professional opera on these islands for the first time!  The Neighbor Island Tour concludes with a return to Maui, where the company last staged the modern take on The Mikado (2014).

Neighbor Island Tour Dates/Times:

March 29, 7:30pm, at The Kahilu Theatre on the Big Island
March 31, 7:30pm, at the KCC Performing Arts Center on Kauai
April 1, 7:30pm, at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center

Tickets:

Big Island – KahiluTheatre.Org
Kauai – HawaiiOpera.Org
Maui – MauiArts.Org/Three_Decembers

Inter-Island Tour Special Events with Hawaii Public Radio

Join Hawaii Public Radio for a night out filled with food, drink, and the opera, when Hawaii Opera Theatre (HOT) stages Three Decembers, featuring opera legend Frederica von Stade.

Composed by Jake Heggie (Moby Dick, Dead Man Walking), Three Decembers is based on a play by Terrence McNally about Broadway star Madeline Mitchell as she enters the twilight of her career and life. The story unfolds with Madeline, estranged from her children, sharing a secret she has kept, and over three decades hidden truths are revealed as they struggle to find their identities as part of their family and in their lives.

Frederica von Stade makes her HOT debut as Madeline, in what the Houston Chronicle called “the role of a lifetime” when she created it for the premiere in 2008.

Hawaii Opera Theatre will take this production from Honolulu to the Neighbor Islands and, with HPR, will be offering exclusive pre-performance dinner and ticket packages on the Neighbor Islands as follows:

Hawaiʻi island – Kahilu Theatre
Wednesday, March 29, 7:30pm
5:00pm dinner at Merriman’s Waimea

Kauaʻi – Kauaʻi Community College
Friday, March 31, 7:30pm
5:00pm dinner at Gaylord’s Restaurant

Thank you for your support of Hawaii Opera Theatre, Hawaii Public Radio, and the Arts in Hawaii!

Purchase tickets to the Neighbor Island Dinners and Performance Packages online now.