Hawaii’s Maika‘i Nash had innovation in performing arts on his mind when he returned to Hawaii after an illustrious career abroad.
During his 20 years as an operatic vocal coach and pianist in meccas of classical arts such as Vienna, Paris and Italy, he was exposed to experimental performance styles. Two years ago, he returned to Hawaii and sought to blend the classical with the contemporary when he created HI Arts Lab.
The performance art company kicks off its first season on Friday, with “Dichterliebe – A Descent into Love.”
THE PERFORMANCE highlights “art song” — vocal music with piano accompaniment. It also tells a story, over the course of several songs.
The production gets a spin from Nash, who has infused some creative license into the piece via his choice of performance venue, and by altering the original structure and plot.
“Art song is pop music of the 19th century,” says Nash. “Before records, people would pass around sheet music and get together in living rooms and sing for each other.”
Carnegie Hall and other grand concert venues are known to feature this musical style, but Nash liked the idea of bringing it back to its original intimate setting.
“It isn’t opera,” points out Nash. “To put these songs up in such a stoic way in these giant places is not what they were written for.”
He chose Honolulu’s chic new Entrepreneur’s Sandbox as the location. The ultra- modern, versatile space has a polished industrial feel, constructed of metal and concrete with wood accents and high ceilings.
While abroad, Nash had dreamed of creating artistic fusion in Hawaii, taking his classical background in music and dabbling in experimentation — much like he’d seen being vibrantly done in Toronto’s rich theater community and elsewhere.
He began to believe Hawaii was ready for this kind of adventurous art with the success of Pow! Wow! Hawaii and Honolulu Biennial, robust art platforms that quickly gained momentum amidst a receptive visual arts community and grew into a thriving, collaborative arts movement.
“I could see the landscape here was really ready for something new and interesting to happen,” he said.
WHERE A classical rendering of “Dichterliebe” would portray a single man singing 16 songs to represent the full cycle of a relationship, from falling in love to breaking up, Nash gathered a troupe to tell the story in a novel way.
This production includes movement artist Marcus Quiniones, celebrated local bass singer Jamie Offenbach and noted Hawaiian singer Pomaika‘i Lyman, along with Nash.
Offenbach will sing the original German rendition on Friday and Sunday, and his own English translation on Saturday, while Nash provides piano accompaniment.
The twist: Nash and Offenbach remain offstage, in the audience space, while the stage spotlight goes to Quiniones, bringing the story to life through movement.
“Marcus, Jamie and myself are three iterations of the man,” Nash said.
Meanwhile, acting on Nash’s idea to incorporate a woman’s point of view into the mix, lyricist Anuenue Punua created four Hawaiian mele for Lyman to sing, with music composed by Jace Saplan. So that audiences understand the mele and German lyrics, surtitles will be provided.
“Originally, you hear a man complaining most of the time, like we all do when we have a breakup,” says Nash, tongue in cheek, “but you never hear the other side of the situation. I wanted to give the woman a voice.”
Through his series of songs, some as short as 30 seconds, the man experiences cycles of quickly shifting emotions, whiplashing between laughter and fondness, anger and depression.
“It’s pretty honest and raw in its emotions,” adds Nash. “There aren’t any other song cycles (of art songs) I can think of that go into anger and depression like this does.”
EARLY ON, Nash had the idea to take four existing mele and fit them into the plot.
“But when you look at Hawaiian music, nobody talks about a breakup,” notes Nash. “Nobody talks about loss of a marriage. Mele are about reverence for nature, gods and goddesses, and obviously love songs, but not a lot of (relationship) detail beyond that.
“Jamie and I realized early on we were going to have to write something. When we asked Anuenue to do it, she said, ‘I’ve never written these kinds of lyrics in my life.’”
It doesn’t ruin the plot to mention that at one point the woman is getting remarried, and the man is stalking the wedding. Says Nash:
“When Pomaika‘i saw the lyrics for the first time, she said, ‘Wow, I’ve never seen these kind of words in a Hawaiian song before.’”
Taking age-old, universal emotions and giving them a contemporary treatment, Nash’s purpose is simple:
“I hope people walk away with questions and wanting to investigate more about music and the arts.”
For the rest of HI Arts Lab’s first season, Nash has plenty more creativity up his sleeves. The word “lab” in his company’s title means leeway for experimentation.
In future productions, a series of speakeasies will take place at unique locations, joining unusual art styles and bringing new possibility to the way performers and audiences approach Hawaiian and classical art forms.
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NOW SHOWING
“Dichterliebe – A Descent into Love”
>> Where: Entrepreneur’s Sandbox, 643 Ilalo St.
>> When: 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 4:30 p.m. Sunday
>> Cost: $10-$25
>> Info: hiartslab.org
