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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Friday, May 4, 2001

Soprano takes on Lili'uokalani tunes, too

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Staff Writer

Soprano Helen Donath will perform arias, songs from American musicals and compositions by Queen LiliÎuokalani among other musical offerings in Sundayâs recital benefit for Hawai'i Opera Theatre.

Helen and Klaus Donath
A benefit recital for Hawai'i Opera Theatre's Mae Z. Orvis Opera Studio educational programs.
4 p.m., Sunday, May 6
Hawai'i Theatre
$25-$60
596-7858

After almost four decades of global performances, a hundred-plus albums featuring her voice and an uncanny ability for wrapping any number of operatic languages comfortably around that voice, internationally renowned soprano Helen Donath has a new, but welcome, challenge at the moment: learning some Hawaiian ... fast.

In the middle of a conference call that includes husband and principal pianist Klaus Donath — himself a noted international conductor — the singer takes a shot at reeling off a list of compositions by Queen Lili'uokalani that Hawa'i Opera Theatre general and artistic director Henry Akina requested she sing at the couple's first Hawai'i performance. Helen's pronunciation, while not exactly effortless, is nonetheless impressive for someone who admits to receiving the songs only two days earlier.

"There are three compositions— 'Nohea I Mu'olaulani,' 'Ku'u Pua I Paoakalani' and 'Nani Na Pua Ko'olau,' " Helen says.

Suddenly, a small sample of Donath's exquisite soprano fills the phone line as she vocalizes the notes of one of the songs.

"Gosh, they're so beautiful, aren't they?" she says of the songs. "I imagine Queen Lili'uokalani must have been a delightful woman to know."

"We're working hard on the songs," chimes Klaus, from another telephone. "The pronunciations aren't that easy, so Helen will be having some people help her out to make sure it's done right."

In addition to their brief menu of Hawaiian language songs, the couple also worked with Akina on a Hawai'i Theatre recital program that will include arias from operas "Madama Butterfly," "Carmen" and "The Marriage of Figaro," a few of Helen's favorite selections from American musicals, and compositions in Klaus' native German dialect.

Married for 36 years this July, the couple — in conversation, at least — still exude the giddiness of newlyweds when talking about each other, and their careers.

"He's still really my ears," says Helen, explaining why her voice remains as crystalline as ever after 40 years of touring and performing.

"I know many singers who ruined their voices in a couple of years because of the temptation to sing certain roles," says Klaus. "I was the one who always said early on, 'Don't do this (role) too early in your career because it could destroy your voice.' We've since seen that was right. Helen may not be the youngest singer any more, but her voice is still beautiful."

Helen promptly thanks her husband for his sweetness.

The potential in Helen's voice was first recognized by her mother, who made a keepsake vinyl recording of her daughter singing at age 6. By that time, diva-in-training Helen Erwin had already been singing in her church, at weddings and for the entertainment of kindergarten chums in her hometown of Corpus Christi, Texas. A childhood love of singing songs from her beloved movie musicals ebbed at age 14, when Helen fell in love with the gorgeous cinematic tenor of Mario Lanza.

"I had never heard opera before that, but when I saw Mario Lanza in 'The Great Caruso,' I immediately knew that that was what I wanted to sing," remembers Helen.

She began taking voice lessons soon after, moving from Texas to New York for formal study when she was 19. Within a year, Helen had an agent and a performance contract with the Cologne Opera in Germany, the first company she had auditioned for. The couple met a year later in 1963 when both began rehearsals for a production of "Carmen" in Klaus' German hometown of Hannover. They wed in 1965.

Since then, the two have performed together and solo. The couple split their still precious off-the-road time between apartments in Berlin and Miami.

A question is raised about Helen's noticeably absent Lone Star accent.

"I visit family (in Texas) when I can, but I dawn't never think ah hayve lost the ayckcent at ahhl, rilly," she says, again convincingly adopting an unfamiliar foreign twang that sets Klaus into fits of laughter. "I jus rilly know ha tuh put it own whin ah need it."