Opera aims to put infamous Massie case in a musical light

Psychologist Carol Maxym had visited Hawaii several times when she learned about the notorious Massie case and the murder of Joe Kahahawai. It is one of the ugliest stories in modern Hawaiian history.

On Sept. 13, 1931, Thalia Massie told her Navy officer husband that she had been gang-raped by five “local” men near Waikiki. Five likely suspects were arrested and put on trial despite a dearth of evidence.

When their trial ended with the jury deadlocked, Massie’s husband, her wealthy mother and two sailors kidnapped one of the suspects, 22-year-old Joe Kahahawai, took him to Manoa and shot him.

Charged with murder, they were convicted of manslaughter. Amid rabid national press coverage and intense pressure from political and military forces, the killers’ 10-year sentences were commuted to one hour of “imprisonment” at the governor’s office in Iolani Palace.

The facts of the case have been documented by historians. The story has inspired novelists, filmmakers, television producers and playwrights. Maxym, who now calls Hawaii home, is the first to attempt to tell it as an opera.

“This story seemed to me to be so compelling, I just had to do it,” she said. “There seems to be a trend in opera now moving more and more toward the story being as important as the music. I am interested in the psychology of the story, the psychological tragedy.”

Maxym and her production team are looking for supporters to underwrite the $1 million in development and production costs for “The First Lie.” Maxym wrote the libretto in 2010, and the music, by composer Stephen Feigenbaum, is about 25 percent complete. Fundraising is being done through Fractured Atlas (fracturedatlas.org), a national nonprofit service organization for the arts community.

Adding credibility to the project is noted Hawaii-born baritone Quinn Kelsey, who has agreed to star as Kahahawai.

Maxym said she hopes to see “The First Lie” performed in 2019 or 2020. “It depends on the speed and success of fundraising,” she said via email. “Opera can be a slow business!​”

The opera’s title refers to the lie that set the tragedy in motion: Massie’s claim that she was gang-raped. Maxym’s perspective comes from her professional work as a psychologist and educational consultant whose patients include people whose lies have had unintended consequences.

“One lie begat another and another and another. Like ripples in a pond, the ripples from Thalia Massie’s one lie fascinated me — terrified me, really,” she said.

“As a psychologist I find the psychological phenomenon of lying and the subsequent lies that follow as cover-up to be interesting because cover-up never works, because it is irrational. I found the psychological tragedies as compelling as the social tragedy.”

Feigenbaum, a classically trained musician and songwriter with a music degree from Yale, said he is looking forward to including Hawaiian musical instruments — ukulele, steel guitar, ipu and pahu — in the score.

“It’s important to me that (the score) evokes the spirit of Hawaii and Hawaiian music as much as the literal sounds of it,” he said.

“For now all I can say is I was very drawn by the story and have really just begun thinking about orchestration. Coming to Hawaii has already given me some inspiration, though, and I’m very interested to learn more.”

Kelsey said via email that the libretto, or text, would have be to “sensitively constructed, every bit of it fine-tuned and shaped,” as the story is important to a lot of people in Hawaii.

“It could really connect them to the art form,” he said.

At the same time, “Hawaii could, in a way, make a significant mark on the world of opera and the performing arts in a way it may never have until now,” Kelsey said.