HOT’s Dynamic Duo
One of America’s best opera companies survives in tough times because of smart management from its directors, Henry Akina and Karen Tiller
By Chad Pata
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the role. When we did Romeo and Juliet, we wanted a Romeo and Juliet who were believable in those roles.”
It is this and their attention to details that has kept the patrons coming back year after year.
“I think that is the reason why we are a successful arts organization, because people expect that kind of seamless collaboration between pit and stage,” says Tiller. “The production value is high, the artist’s quality is incredibly high, so from a qualitative perspective, we provide that.”
While the Islands are filled with a remarkable variety of musical talent, opera talent is another creature entirely. Many of the minor roles are filled by locals from the UH Mae Orvis Opera Lab, but singers for the larger roles generally have to be imported.
“Few people in the Islands keep an opera technique going, it’s athletics,” says Akina. “It’s a challenge that way. Opera singing is a very difficult kind of thing. Your vocal chords are only a couple of pieces of gristle. They have an extraordinary breathing technique and we don’t use any microphones.”
Bringing out big-time talent on HOT’s budget would be a challenge except for one advantage: weather. Because the opera season happens to fall during the winter months, Akina and Tiller can use the tropics as a bargaining chip to bring in the big names.
“We get a higher-caliber artist for a company our size because our location in January through March is a real draw, so they are willing to work for less for the opportunity to be in paradise,” says Akina.
This draw also allows them to put together operas in their own fashion.
Many houses prefer to showcase a big star and then fill in the roles around that star to make them shine. Akina and Tiller prefer an ensemble approach, putting together a wide range of talent with performers playing outside of their normal roles and in a much more theatrical way.
“We can use Hawaii as an assembly place for talent,” says Akina. “You can see some of the same people in New York, but not in the same combination. We get people out here who are not necessarily warhorses in the role, so we get something fresh.
Leon Williams, who is singing the Baron Douphol in La Traviata, usually sings larger roles with other companies, but because he has a residence here, he was willing to do this for us.”
You can see Williams and the rest of the cast in the final opera of the season opening Feb. 25 in a show that Akina is sure will move all who attend.
“The issue in opera is always kind of the same: the lady dies,” says Akina, with his signature laugh. “But she dies well, she dies brilliantly, she dies not wanting to, and I think that is one of the most important things - just as she is ready to live, she dies. That is a message that resonates more than we would like on the human level.”
Expect to find Akina and Tiller in the lobby as always on show nights greeting patrons, answering questions and listening to concerns. Their job as director ends once the curtain goes up, and despite their vast differences, listening to the two of them talk about opening night is like hearing a married couple speak of their progeny, their words spilling over one another in their enthusiasm.
“Typically on an opening night, as the director, you are watching,” says Tiller.
“You have done your work and now it is theirs. You never really let it go,” says Akina.
“For the longest time I had the hardest time watching because there is no control,” says Tiller.
“You can’t say, ‘Stop! Let’s do that again,” says Akina.
“Wait, wait, that is not right, because you have been able to do that up until that point,” says Tiller.
“But there is something wonderful about the process, there is nothing like watching someone becoming a role without you,” says Akina.
So sometimes it seems that two is better than one, and with this dicephalic leader at the helm, opera patrons can look forward to HOT moving forward where other arts organizations have fallen.
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