The full cast and choir of Ihitai ‘Avei’a - Star Navigator. Photo / Supplied
The full cast and choir of Ihitai ‘Avei’a - Star Navigator. Photo / Supplied
Singer, songwriter, musician, freedom fighter, opera composer, Split Enz-er. Tim Finn has pretty much done it all.
But his latest foray into opera just might be his biggest challenge - and his most rewarding to date.
To close off a successful post-Covid 2022 season, New Zealand Opera will hold its final performance of the year, Ihitai ‘Avei’a - Star Navigator, at Te Rauparaha Arena in Porirua on December 9.
Premiering in Auckland last year to rave reviews, Porirua shows will bring heart and soul to the region’s calendar in this festive season. Composed by Finn, and with Tahitian monologues by Célestine Hitiura Vaite, Ihitai ‘Avei’a - Star Navigator has had the help of more than 200 people to bring the 75-minute production to the stage.
“It’s finally great to get back in the room with people,” Finn told the Herald.
“Opera and musical theatre take years of development - when you actually get to do it, they are very precious moments.”
The opera boasts a cast of singers well-known to New Zealand opera lovers, including Emmanuel Fonoti-Fuimaono – recipient of the Dame Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation Scholarship at the 2022 Lexus Song Quest – who will sing as Tupaia; Paul Whelan as James Cook; Marlena Devoe, who brings Purea to life; and Norah Stevenson-Tuuga, who will perform Célestine’s Tahitian monologues.
Emmanuel Fonoti-Fuimaono (on knee) plays Tupaia, while Paul Whelan is James Cook. Photo / Supplied
This haunting production tells the story of Tupaia, a Tahitian star navigator, and his time aboard James Cook’s HMS Endeavour. He sailed from Tahiti with Cook on the Endeavour’s maiden voyage in 1769, but the two navigators of genius were unable to find their way into each other’s worlds.
After joining Cook’s expedition, Tupaia piloted the Endeavour through the Society Islands, and handled many of the negotiations with Māori during their six-month circumnavigation of Aotearoa New Zealand. His presence onboard transformed these early encounters, making this quite different from any other visit by a European ship during the contact period.
Finn said he first first thought about writing the musical story of Tupaia 16 years ago when he took his son to see the Endeavour replica in Sydney Harbour.
“I went into the great cabin, which was Captain Cook’s space - who was [then] still a lieutenant. But there were others around with big minds and big personalities, like Joseph Banks, Charles Green, and Daniel Solander and Tupaia.
“It struck me as a being a theatrical space of highly-combustible ideas, with all that knowledge in one small space. "
“Cook and Tupaia going head-to-head. The scientist, and the man who was a navigator, priest and artist. Something about the claustrophobic confines of the master cabin - the obvious tensions and misunderstandings that must have occurred. It seemed dramatic and spoke to our current dilemma… Where are we going? How will we get there?”
The opera is a collaboration between Finn and Célestine Hitiura Vaite, who share the same passion for telling stories set in the immensity of the Pacific.
Tim Finn and Célestine Hitiura Vaite. Photo / Supplied
Growing up in Te Awamutu, close to the coast, Finn has always had an affinity for the ocean and astronomy, and he marvels at how the story has evolved and attracted new audiences to opera.
“During the writing of Ihitai ‘Avei’a - Star Navigator, I visited the sacred island of Raiatea twice with my family. I stood on Taputapuatea marae and watched as the twin-hulled voyaging canoe Hokule’a was called in through the reef. Tahitian writer Célestine Hitiura Vaite became my collaborator on the libretto, and Tom Mcleod my collaborator on the score. "
Vaite - a Tahitian novelist published in 17 countries, with a personal connection to the story itself - had been passionately researching ancient Tahiti for two years.
“I think it’s wonderful of Tim that we were invited to the project, and I feel honoured, because there are a lot of stories about Tahitians, but it is rare that we are invited to participate. Often the people who write our stories don’t truly understand Tahitians. In this opera, Purea is not my direct tūpuna ancestor, but descends from the same Ari’i royal genealogy. As for Ari’i Tupaia, he would have met my direct ancestor Ari’i Manea, both being high priests in 1769, when Cook arrived in Tahiti on the Endeavour.”
Finn said because Cook was a very staunch character and was perhaps narrow-minded, he never took the opportunity to learn Tupaia’s skills.
“Cook could have learned so much and could have learned more by opening up to Tupaia, but he was so closed-off, because he was a humbly-born Yorkshireman and wasn’t Captain Cook but Lieutenant Cook, and he was holding on tightly to the controls.
“He would have known Tupaia had a certain nobility and mana about him.”
