A true love for music has guided Henry Akina, Hawaii Opera Theatre’s first Hawaiian director, through more than 120 operas over a 30-year career.
Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann will be the last opera that Henry directs for HOT, before retiring from his role as Artistic Director, which he has held for 20 years. The production will be performed on April 21, 23, and 25 at the Blaisdell Concert Hall.
In a 2002 HOT concert program Henry wrote: “The opera is but one art form where we can go beyond everyday life to look at some of its mythologies and gain insight into the lives of other characters, and thus into our own.”
With this in mind, the Tales of Henry will look back on Henry’s life and career.
Henry’s Youth
His grandfather worked at the Metropolitan Opera, and his parents regularly listened to opera broadcasts. He saw his first opera, Bizet’s Carmen, at HOT when he was only six years old.
“There was a lot of opera lore in our family, but I thought it was just ‘lore,’” Henry said, “and I didn’t really think of it as a career until much later.”
Henry’s parents, who were both medical professionals, were surprised when he turned away from medicine and law in favor of an arts education. It wasn’t opera that he pursued in primary school, however, it was theater. As a boy, Henry dreamed of being an actor.
But when Henry saw Puccini’s Turandot at HOT as a teenager, he realized something.
“It really taught me that theater was something that we could do through music, as well,” he said.
And so the ‘Muse of Music’ grabbed Henry and began to influence his life, as the ‘Muse of Poetry’ guided and protected Hoffmann in The Tales of Hoffmann.
Hoffmann’s infatuation for the prima donna Stella could have distracted him from his true love of poetry. In a similar sense, theater was only a stepping stone along Henry’s path toward musical creation.
And just as Hoffmann’s three great failed romances paved the way for poetic greatness, three of Henry’s life experiences have factored into his musical inspiration.
By Allison Kronberg