Posted on: Monday, February 7, 2005

ABOUT MEN

By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Staff Writer

You know what opera really needs? It needs our help.

That's why I've decided to start a new support group for opera in Hawai'i. I'm calling it Beer Lovers Opera Group.

The idea for BLOG came to me while I was sitting through the Hawaii Opera Theatre's long production of Wagner's "The Flying Dutchman." Wait. I wasn't supposed to say it was a long opera. That's redundant.

Anyway, I was just waking up somewhere near the end of the second act when this thought flashed on me: I need a beer. And then it flashed on me again: If I need a beer, maybe opera does, too.

Plenty of people are trying to help opera these days. Outside the Blaisdell Concert Hall, groups advertised their support for opera. Lawyers for Opera. Physicians for Opera. Mothers for Opera.

There's even a national group called Opera for Everybody, which may have it backward; opera needs us more than we need it.

"How come there's no Journalists for Opera?" my wife wanted to know.

Don't get me started. Sometimes, it seems like I'm the only journalist I know who goes to the opera with his wife. The other guys always seem to have something better to do. (By the way, a hearty mahalo to the HOT scheduling director for not having an opera on Super Bowl Sunday this year. Last year I missed the whole "wardrobe malfunction" thing because I was watching Puccini, or maybe it was Verdi. This year, I'll hoist a brewski in HOT's honor at halftime.)

Whenever the talk turns to opera, beer can't be far behind. I know most people associate opera with white wine or merlot, but in many ways beer and opera go hand in hand. There's usually a rowdy chorus somewhere in the course of an opera swilling grog. There's usually a male singer who has one great-looking beer belly. And there's always a dying heroine who could have washed her troubles away if only she had drunk more beer in the first act.

Kona Brewing Co. is one of the corporate sponsors of this year's opera season. If opera is good enough for the people who have brewed more than 1.5 million gallons of beer in Hawai'i, then it's good enough for us.

So my Beer Lovers for Opera Group idea seems like a natural winner all around. Next Sunday at the opera I'm going to buy a keg, set up a big banner (WELCOME BLOGGERS), pass the mugs and start signing up members. Later, we may even go inside to cheer for the guy with the biggest beer belly.

And this just in: The next production, "Susannah" — Friday, Sunday and next Tuesday — features brief frontal nudity in Act I (stay awake) that is at least equal to what Janet Jackson bared at the Super Bowl last year.

So what's not to like?

Sex, jealousy, rednecks, rage and a full-on chorus of beer drinkers.

So let's go, Bloggers. Opera needs you, now.

Reach Mike Leidemann at 525-5460 or mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.