A FEBRUARY 12, 2016 FRIDAY | 8:00 PM MIDSUMMER FEBRUARY 14, 2016 SUNDAY | 4:00 PM NIGHT’S FEBRUARY 16, 2016 TUESDAY | 7:00 PM DREAM HERMÈS BY NATURE Honolulu - Ala Moana Center - (808) 947-3789 - Royal Hawaiian Center - (808) 922-5780 Hermes.com AND WELCOME TO ANOTHER GREAT PRODUCTION FROM HAWAII OPERA THEATRE! We are delighted to be presenting Meanwhile our Education Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Department continues to bring opera Night’s Dream – the fi rst time that to children throughout the State. HOT has performed an opera by After a very successful tour of Oahu, one of the 20th century’s leading our Opera Express production of The operatic composers. This stunning Magic Flute visited Kauai in January, new production is directed by and is set to bring more performances Henry Akina, with videography to Maui, the Big Island and Oahu in by Adam Larsen, who created the the coming months. In all, there will extraordinary background for our be more than 70 performances to over production of Siren Song last year. 10,000 students. The cast is led by Daniel Bubeck as As always we are grateful to you, Oberon and Anne-Carolyn Bird as our audience, for attending our Tytania, the King and Queen of the performances and for the support Fairies, and we welcome back some you give us in so many ways of our most popular stars: Jamie throughout the year. Without your Off enbach, Nathan Munson, Kyle help we simply could not continue Erdos-Knapp and Leon Williams. to bring the world’s best opera to We are joined by the talented Hawaii. youngsters of Hawaii Youth Opera Chorus, and the renowned English But now sit back and enjoy Benjamin conductor William Lacey makes his Britten’s magical A Midsummer Night’s HOT debut. Dream! We would also like to thank everyone MAHALO who supported our Opera Ball in November. With more than 630 Simon Crookall people attending, this was HOT’s Executive Director most successful Ball in many years. Thank you to our table hosts, silent auction donors, and supporters, and especially to our wonderful Opera Ball Committee, chaired by Cherye Pierce and Cheryl Hetherington. Aria 3 In paradise, bad still happens. That’s why First Insurance Company of Hawaii provides quality protection for your home, auto and business. We offer great coverage and rates, and back our policies with local knowledge and effi cient claims service. For a free quote, call your independent agent. fi coh.com A Midsummer Night’s Dream Composed by Benjamin Britten Written by William Shakespeare By arrangement with Boosey & Hawkes, Inc., publisher and copyright owner. CAST In order of vocal appearance PAUL T. MITRI* JOSHUA JEREMIAH* KYLE ERDOS-KNAPP Puck Demetrius Flute / Thisbe ANNE-CAROLYN BIRD* RACHELLE DURKIN NATHAN MUNSON Tytania Helena Snout / Wall DANIEL BUBECK* BUZ TENNENT NATHAN STARK* Oberon Quince / Prologue Bottom / Pyramus JOHN BELLEMER TYLER SIMPSON* JAMIE OFFENBACH Lysander Snug / Lion Theseus CLAIRE SHACKLETON* LEON WILLIAMS KATHARINE GOELDNER* Hermia Starveling / Moonshine Hippolyta *HOT debut. ARTISTIC TEAM WILLIAM LACEY JOSÉ MELÉNDEZ RICK JARVIE Conductor Rehearsal Pianist/Coach Wig & Make Up Co-Designer HENRY G. AKINA PETER DEAN BECK ADAM LARSEN Stage Director Set and Lighting Designer Projections Designer BEEBE FREITAS HELEN E. RODGERS ELSA GRIMA Chorus Director Costume Designer Assistant Director NOLA NAHULU SUE SITTKO SCHAEFER CECELIA FORDHAM Chorus Co-Director Wig & Make Up Co-Designer Fairy Coach Aria 5 A Midsummer Night's Dream IN DEDICATION This production is dedicated by the director to the memory of George Gloster McGovern (February 9, 1955 to October 8, 1990) a brilliant student of music and composition, who first introduced him to the rare beauty of the composition of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and to the thousands who have since weighed in on the merits of this opera. FAIRIES Provided by Hawaii Youth Opera Chorus Nola A. Nahulu, Artistic Director Angela Abinales Lilinoe Field-Perkins Simone Nakamura SOLO FAIRIES: Alexandra Araki Mayuko Ikeda Bao Nguyen Sophia Stark – Cobweb Angelina Araki Kellie Komatsu Payton O’Neill Raphael Stark – Peaseblossom Katerina Araki Jayne Lau Kayla Park Ian Jones – Moth Kelaiha (Jada) Araki Natalie Lau Iris Sloan Sophi Sansano – Mustardseed Christine Dong Charles Lonborg Adia Dunn Alycea Mechergui SUPERS Ed Chow Randy Encarnacion Keith Kalway Eliana Crestani Suzanne Engel (Changeling Boy) HOT ORCHESTRA VIOLIN 1 VIOLA FLUTE/PICCOLO TROMBONE Ignace Jang, Concertmaster Mark Butin, Principal Susan McGinn, Principal Michael Maier, Principal Claire Sakai Hazzard, Associate Steven Flanter, Associate Principal Claire Starz Butin, Associate Concertmaster Jean-Michel Jaquon Principal TIMPANI Judy Barrett, Assistant Melvin Whitney Jordan Schifino, Principal Concertmaster Anna Womack OBOE/ENGLISH HORN Mio Unosawa Herzog Sandra Wong J. Scott Janusch, Principal PERCUSSION Helen Liu Michael Stubbart, Principal Elaine Lu CELLO CLARINET Nadine Thériault Mark Votapek, Principal James F. Moffitt, Principal HARP Emma Votapek Joshua Nakazawa, Associate Norman Foster, Associate Principal Constance Uejio, Principal Principal Sharene Lum Taba, Associate VIOLIN 2 Anna Callner BASSOON Principal Hung Wu, Principal Nancy Masaki Paul Barrett, Principal Darel Stark, Associate Principal HARPSICHORD/CELESTE Timothy Leong DOUBLE BASS HORN Thomas Yee, Principal Rachel Saul John Gallagher, Principal Matthew Berliner, Principal Nancy Shoop-Wu John Kolivas, Associate Principal Julia Filson, Associate Principal ORCHESTRA LIBRARIAN Duane White Kathryn Schulmeister Kim Kiyabu, Principal TRUMPET Kenneth Hafner, Principal ORCHESTRA CONTRACTOR Colin Belisle Hawaii Opera Theatre 6 Aria PRODUCTION STAFF DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION WIG AND MAKE-UP MASTER ELECTRICIAN I.A.T.S.E. UNION STEWARD T.H. Stettler CO-DESIGNERS Sandy Sandelin Al Omo, Local 665 Sue Sittko Schaefer & Rick Jarvie SCENIC & LIGHTING DESIGNER MASTER FLYMAN RUNNING CREW Peter Dean Beck ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Alema Ryder I.A.T.S.E. Local 665 Sets – Constructed by the HOT Scene Shop Elsa Grima PROP MASTER SECURITY PROJECTION DESIGNER ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER Gen Boyer Kiekie Productions Adam Larsen Kale Okazaki SOUND & VIDEO Charles Roberts BACKSTAGE SECURITY COSTUME DIRECTOR 2ND ASST. STAGE MANAGER COORDINATOR Helen E. Rodgers Lanaly Cabaly WARDROBE MISTRESS Miu Lan Oman Costumes designed by Helen E. Rodgers Pam Gossage MASTER CARPENTER SUPERTITLES ASSISTANT COSTUME Al Omo SCENIC ARTIST Anna Ogino MacNeill DESIGNER M. Emi Yabuta Caitlin Moraska SPONSORS PRODUCTION GENHOT HOSPITALITY SET TRANSPORTATION Atherton Family Foundation Alexander & Baldwin, Inc. Halekulani Hotel Pasha Hawaii Carol Franc Buck Honolulu Club Cooke Foundation, Limited ORCHESTRA COSTUME TRANSPORTATION John Young Foundation The Cades Foundation LANAI LECTURES Air Canada Cargo First Insurance Company of Hawaii, DIRECTOR SUPERTITLES Ltd. Anela Kolohe Foundation Clifford and Adrienne Lau Hawaii Opera Plaza 848 South Beretania Street, Suite 301 Honolulu, Hawaii 96813 808.596.7372 Be on the lookout for HawaiiOpera.org HOT's 2016-17 Opera [email protected] Season Subscription To advertise in Aria, please contact Nella Media Group, Mike Wiley, 808.260.8788, mike@ renewals in the mail. nellamediagroup.com Let’s be friends. Aria 7 A Midsummer Night's Dream When Benjamin Britten decided in beginning has the feeling of threat, the summer of 1959 to write a new of something ominous going opera to open the Aldeburgh Festival on. In the play, and the opera as June 1960, and to inaugurate the well, the Shakespearean tangle is rebuilt Jubilee Hall, he was setting actually a place where people go himself an almost impossible task. to essentially resolve inner issues UNVEILING Later Britten said, “As this was a that they can’t resolve in society. So comparatively sudden decision the Shakespearean wild is like a BENJAMIN there was no time to get a libretto place of psychological nightmare.” written, so we took one that was By starting in the woods, it means ready to hand. I have always loved A that only the fi nal scene of the BRITTEN’S Midsummer Night’s Dream.” opera takes place elsewhere—after the characters have resolved their A It is extremely unlikely that, in fact, dilemmas. Britten decided to tackle turning a complex Shakespeare play into “The music Britten wrote for the MIDSUMMER an opera because of a shortage of opening of the opera, plus a lot of time. But he and his life partner, the Fairy music and for Oberon and NIGHT’S the tenor Peter Pears, came up with Tytania, has a sense of disorder,” a workable libretto in remarkably Berkeley points out. “I think the best short order. “The play already had of the lovers’ music comes when DREAM a strong verbal music of its own,” they start fi ghting, and the music Britten explained. “The fi rst task was is at its most disorderly. There’s the to get it into manageable shape, sense the lovers have left organized BY PAUL THOMASON which basically entailed simplifying society, ready to battle it out. and cutting an extremely complex They’ve had to go to another place. story…I do not feel in the least guilty It’s as if we have to leave society to at having cut the play in half. The resolve things.” original Shakespeare will survive.” The orchestral music with which The opera begins with Shakespeare’s Britten opens the opera immediately second act—in the woods—and places us in the woods, the there are only six words in the glissandos in the muted strings— libretto that are not in the original repeatedly moving up and down the play. To clarify why Hermia and scale—suggesting the breathing of Lysander are fl eeing Athens someone deep in sleep. Or perhaps (one of the major plot points in it is the sound of the wood at night, Shakespeare’s fi rst act), Britten and with creaking branches; or the Pears added the line, “compelling sound of the magic spell that is on thee to marry with Demetrius,” for the wood and everyone who comes Lysander to explain Hermia’s plight.