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Beverages have always won the praise of artists, writers and musicians. Wine ranks high in fine-art creations in poetry, painting and music. Beer and such stronger drinks as gin and whiskey figure more prominently in the vernacular traditions. The non-intoxicants have not received an equal amount of artistic attention. There is "Tea for Two" and "Tea and Sympathy" and the scene with the Marschallin's hot chocolate in Der Rosenkavalier. Until now, the only great artistic work about coffee was Johann Sebastian Bach's "Coffee" Cantata, Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht (BWV 211), the nearest the Leipzig master ever came to writing an opera (libretto by Picander, the pen name for Christian Friedrich Henrici).
The Kona Coffee Cantata originated, appropriately enough, over coffee and conversation in 1981 between composer Jerre Tanner and Christine Jones, a classical music lover and co-owner of The Coffee Cantata, a coffee shop in Kailua-Kona on Hawaii Island. Jones suggested that Tanner write a companion piece to Bach's "Coffee" Cantata, to be presented in An Evening of Coffee Cantatas during the 1985 tercentenary celebrations of Bach's birth. Tanner and his long time collaborator, poet Harvey Hess, did not begin work on the cantata until 1983, and intervening projects did not permit them to complete it in time for the Bach Tercentenary. In the meantime, Jones - still in her mid-thirties - died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage. The Kona Coffee Cantata is dedicated to her.
The shared topic of the two coffee cantatas is no accident. Hawaii's Kona district is home to one of the world's finest coffees. Coffee was introduced to Hawaii from Brazil in 1825; it has been cultivated on the mountain slopes of Kona ever since. Coffee production in Kona is the highest in the world in terms of pounds of beans per acre. Those beans produce a roast highly prized by coffee connoisseurs.
Tanner and Hess agreed to create a "Baroque Hawaiian style" for The Kona Coffee Cantata. "We would combine Baroque musical traditions with Hawaiian musical traditions as seamlessly as possible," Tanner says, "looking for a common ground between the two so that our audience would accept this cross-cultural hybrid as being perfectly natural."
The listener can hear such Baroque techniques as recitativo secco and accompagnato, arias with instrumental obbligatos, cabalettas displaying vocal pyrotechnics, fugues, chorale preludes, florid ornamentation, and those sturdy Baroque walking bass lines. On the Hawaiian side there are hints of ancient chant and hula rhythms sounded by the ipu hula - a traditional drum-like instrument used for the dance. Along with the ipu hula, Tanner's orchestra is made up of strings, solo flute and basso continuo, the instrumentation of Bach's "Coffee" Cantata.
Tanner incorporates another Baroque technique musical borrowing. He uses the rhythmic motive from the opening recitative of Bach's "Coffee" Cantata as the "thief motive" in The Kona Coffee Cantata, later associating it with Kolea along with another borrowed theme, a tune from Czech folk music which Max Bruch uses in his Violin Concerto in G minor. This theme was also used by Richard Strauss in Eine Alpensinfonie. "One of the musicians in the Prague Chamber Orchestra sang the Czech folk song," Tanner says. "There was the theme, unmistakable."
Like Bach's "Coffee" Cantata, The Kona Coffee Cantata uses three characters sung by a soprano, a tenor and a baritone. At the heart of both cantatas is the baritone, a grumpy father. In Bach's case, father Schlendrian's complaint is his daughter Lieschen's love for coffee, a fashionable and much discussed "addiction" in the 18th century. In The Kona Coffee Cantata the coffee grower, Mr. Kua, is concerned about his daughter Kolea's prolonged and unexplained absences in Honolulu, a city whose sinful attractions he recalls from his own youth. In both cantatas, Papa is outwitted by a clever daughter, sung by the soprano. Bach's cantata has Schlendrian arrange a marriage for Lieschen in exchange for her promise to forsake coffee. But Bach's narrator (the tenor) predicts that Lieschen will write into her marriage contract a stipulation that her new husband will allow her to drink coffee to her heart's content.
The Kona Coffee Cantata has Kolea secretly selling off her dowry, a hoard of the very finest roast of Kona coffee beans. Mr. Kua thinks they are being taken by a thief and installs a formidable array of locks to protect the cache of beans to no avail, of course. Kolea's sales to buyers in Honolulu fetch prices far exceeding those her father would have gotten. Tanner's tenor is Kolea's fiancé, Kimo, a loving and hard-working fellow though sometimes feisty and understandably jealous. The "contract" in The Kona Coffee Cantata is not a marriage contract but advance orders for more Kona beans, orders Kolea turns over to Kimo. Kolea has another bright idea: starting a gourmet coffee shop-bookstore in Kona, just like those so fashionable in Honolulu.
The contrast between these two domestic comedies lies in the role of the two young women. Bach and Picander's Lieschen is a tricky little minx determined to hold on selfishly to a pleasant diversion. Tanner and Hess' Kolea uses her quickwittedness for the benefit of her father and for the married life she and Kimo are planning. While heroic cunning is an almost exclusively male trait in mythologies of the Western world, this sort of heroism is frequently accorded female characters in stories from the Hawaiian/Polynesian tradition.
An element of primary importance in The Kona Coffee Cantata is the complex concept of aloha, a term which can mean both welcome and farewell, love and giving through love. "Harvey and I strove to incorporate many facets of aloha into the work," Tanner says, "aloha'aina (love of the land), aloha of parent and child, aloha of lovers, aloha for Kona, aloha to the greater society, and more."
Bach's "Coffee" Cantata was first performed by his Collegium Musicum at Zimmermann's Coffee House in Leipzig. Bach scholars argue about the date, but the first performance occurred some summer evening between 1732 and 1737. The Kona Coffee Cantata received its premiere in a somewhat abbreviated version by Uptown Opera at Lindaman's Gourmet-to-Go Restaurant in Spokane, Washington, November 13, 1986.
Dr. Rivers is Chairman of the School of Music, Eastern Washington University, Cheney and is senior music critic for the Spokane Spokesman-Review.
SETTING - The action takes place in the family home of a Kona coffee farmer. At stage right is the ridiculously over-locked door that leads outside. At stage left is the door to what was once the family's original humble dwelling and which now is used to store the best grade special roast coffee-beans for which the family is famous. At stage center is a comfortable and obviously much lived-in arrangement of furniture, including a table and chairs.
NO. 1: RECITATIVO ACCOMPAGNATO
Mr. Kua: What's keeping her? Why
She said she'd be home yesterday
I'd like to know why she has to go
To Honolulu so much in the first place?
What is she doing over there anyway?
I remember when I used to go over
Stop! I needn't imagine problems
When there's plenty real ones here.
(goes to the storage-room door and looks in momentarily)
Mr. Kua: Gone! It's almost gone!
Of last year's choicest roast!
And not just any roast! The best
If I have to say it myself.
The best of all I grew I saved for her:
And when the price was right
She'd get a little extra to start her
Dear Child, I've beamed on you as on
And work-days spent for you have all
For you the times of harvest flew like hours
When fragrant roast, for your sake,
But like a raging upland storm I'd pour
And tear with lightning strokes that
Who steals your crops that I've been
I'd fall on him and bring him to his
Dear Child, I've beamed on you as on (etc.)
(a polite knock at the door)
Mr. Kua: Well, that's no thief who takes
(another polite knock; MR. KUA goes to the door and starts to undo the locks)
Kimo: Are you there, my love?
Mr. Kua (loudly): Patience! (muttering)
I'm doing the best I can.
(he throws open the door revealing the disconcerted KIMO; KIMO twirls a gardenia flower nervously in his fingers)
Mr. Kua: She's not at home.
Kimo: What? She's not here?
You mean not back from Honolulu
When did you put all those new locks
(some of the locks are kind of strange)
Mr. Kua: Well, there's somebody who's
Kimo: Has someone else been seeing
Mr. Kua: Not in this house; not that I
But what she does in Honolulu is
Kimo: Actually, Sir, whether she's
home or not, it's you I came to
Mr. Kua: Me!? Well, then, come in.
(KIMO enters and stands uneasily in the center of the room, while MR. KUA goes through the elaborate procedure of re-locking the door)
Kimo: You have some interesting-
looking locks there, Sir.
I bet you had to send away for some of them.
Mr. Kua: You bet I did. (pointing)
That one's from Germany. (blue-gray
And one's from Japan. (electronic, with lights)
(points to a huge monstrosity; wood and fiber ... and big!)
And that one there a friend sent from Ni'ihau.
I wouldn't need all these machines if I could catch the thief who's stealing all my special roast beans!
Kimo: What! You mean there's a thief
Sir, you don't need these locks; what
you need to protect your beans is me!
Mr. Kua: And how would you manage
to spend all your time over here?
Kimo: Well, what I had in mind anyway was becoming a member of your family.
And, with your blessing, Sir, I want to
Your daughter, as the fragile coffee flower,
Requires the tender rainfall of my care,
That, swathed in drifting droplets, hour
Sets buds with dew aloft in upland air.
The freshened breeze that bears
Breathes sweet as vows of love in
Your daughter, as the fragile coffee (etc.)
Mr. Kua: Have you both agreed on this?
She has a mind of her own, you know.
Kimo: Well, Sir, it was decided
But I thought she would be here ...
NO. 7: RECITATIVO ACCOMPAGNATO
Mr. Kua: Well, I ask you:
Why hasn't she come home?
Mr. Kua: She said she'd be home yesterday!
Mr. Kua: I'd like to know why she has to go
To Honolulu so much in the first place!
Mr. Kua: What is she doing over there,
Mr. Kua: I remember when I used to go over there ...
|Youth is always problematic
|And is always on the go;
|Firm controls applied emphatic -
|Is the proper way to grow
|Both children and a crop!
|Woman's mind is automatic,
|It gives men both joy and woe:
|Never yield to hopes ecstatic -
|You will need to tell her "no"
|And bring her to a stop.
Kimo: He gives his daughter all the best
Mr. Kua: To stop this thief is grief
Kimo: She worries him without a rest ...
Mr. Kua: And when I catch him, I'll get rough ...
Both: This bother can't be topped!
Theft is always problematic,
Slipp'ry thieves are never slow:
Firm control applied emphatic,
And crime bring to a stop!
NO. 9: RECITATIVO ACCOMPAGNATO
(MR. KUA and KIMO creep to opposite sides of the door; then, a more prolonged and louder rattling at the door; the following dialogue is whispered throughout)
Mr. Kua: It's the thief, there at the door!
Mr. Kua: We'll throw open the door
Kimo: But all these locks ...
Mr. Kua: Help me undo them!
(another rattle at the door)
Kimo: When you throw open the door,
Mr. Kua: You?! We'll both do it.
Kimo: Please, Sir, allow me ú
I'm in pretty good shape.
(the Ni 'ihau lock is the last)
Mr. Kua (pushes KIMO aside):
Just let me finish this. (locks off) Ready?
(MR. KUA flings open the door with a grand gesture, inadvertently trapping KIMO behind the door; this reveals the dumb-founded KOLEA, with suitcase in hand, facing her flabbergasted father)
(KIMO, in a reflex, pushes the door closed again and rushes to the side of Mr. KUA; KOLEA, with her hand firmly on the doorknob, opens the door, enters the room to confront MR. KUA and KIMO)
|Fresh from triumphs in the city:
|Why bother, toil and roam
|When they make welcome such a pity!
|Wearing such a face of fury;
|It's she who's on the spot
|To cause the two of us such worry.
|But for Fate, I would have hit her;
|The thief I would have struck;
|Yet such a blow on her how bitter!
Mr. Kua: Where have you been?
Kimo: What have you been doing?
Kolea: Why, I've been in Honolulu;
What I would like to know is why you
Mr. Kua: I wasn't keeping you locked out;
I was locking out a thief.
Kolea: A thief! Is the silver safe? And my jewels?
Kimo: Everything is safe except your
And you, my love, have you kept
Kolea: Oh! So you finally found out
Kimo (alarmed): What do you mean,
Kolea: Why, the coffee beans, of course.
Mr. Kua: The coffee beans can always
What counts to me, my dear, is that
Mr. Kua: You've done wrong ...
Mr. Kua: I am most upset ...
Mr. Kua: You've been gone too long.
Mr. Kua: Furthermore, I've wondered
Mr. Kua: Off to Honolulu, leaving me
Mr. Kua: You'd have been of help to me
just telling me your schedule and
your plans the day your left.
Mr. Kua: Here I've had to stay with all
my ordinary work and worries
Kolea: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry!
Both: Caring helps the best unfold,
Such should move one's heard and
soul, and be our inmost law.
Kimo: Of course, it's good to see
But, my Dearest, I thought we'd agreed
That you'd have returned before now.
Kolea: I caught the first flight out that I could catch.
There's so much to do; and I was
meeting such interesting people ...
Kimo: " ... so much to do ..." ? Wait a minute!
What kind of "interesting people" ...
Mr. Kua: My dear, you cannot go on this
Must tell us what you've been doing.
Kolea: Oh, must I!? I was saving it for a surprise.
Mr. Kua & Kimo: Surprise?
Mr. Kua: You know how I dislike
Kolea: Well-l-l-l... all right.
NO. 14: RECITATIVO ACCOMPAGNATO
It first started out in Honolulu
At an up-to-date book shop;
And they sell coffee there, too.
But it wasn't Kona, it was something awful!
So I took them some of our own.
What joy it savors of to share
My home's most dear perfume,
The best-awakened early air,
In some far-distant room.
Of all the coffees grown on earth,
The crop that marks my place of birth
Is passed by none there are!
For as one's coffee starts the day
To live well is the best reward.
With wealth that wise ones will afford.
Mr. Kua: Am I to understand that you,
My own daughter, are the thief?!
Kolea: My goodness! I wouldn't put it
But, rather, as my quaint Honolulu
"To make the point, you need your space."
Mr. Kua: But do you think deception was the thing to do
When you know I would have been of
Kolea: It was more to love than to
For I have shown how you succeed,
Kimo: That still leaves me deceived;
You could have confided in me, at least.
Kolea: A sure success is the only way to start
The marriage in which I'll take my part.
Kimo: You're always bound for success;
In those circles of "interesting
You're sure to be at the center.
Kolea: To me, my love, those people
Mostly so far as their purchases went.
Kimo: Then take this gardenia flower for your hair;
It's not coffee, though the family
How clearly we two belong together
As coffee's fair bloom depends on weather.
A fair but strong breeze must presume
To tend the flower' s brief perfume;
Thus, tender is mingled with the strong
To show how we two in one belong.
NO. 18: RECITATIVO ACCOMPAGNATO
Mr. Kua: Because I see you both agree
I give my blessing to your wedded life.
Kimo: Well, Sir, you can rid your door of those locks,
For I'll be here to keep a watch myself.
Mr. Kua: A word to the wise, my son:
Amid your loving gazes, keep a watch
Kolea: I think you ought to know, I
have a few more surprises ...
Mr. Kua & Kimo (in unison and in horror):
Mr. Kua: You know how I dislike ...
Kolea: Yes, "surprises;" but these you'll
(she pulls a fistful of papers from her purse; hands her savings book to MR. KUA)
Here is the savings from all of our coffee
Mr. Kua (startled, looking at the book):
What! All this! But that means ...
Kolea: Yes! I did get great prices, didn't
(to Kimo she hands the fistful of papers)
And here, Dear, for you are a few little
Kimo (quickly leafing through them):
(KIMO runs to the storage room, looks inside to appraise the contents and then returns beside MR. KUA)
Sir, how close to ripe are the
cherry-beans on your trees?
Mr. Kua: They'll be ripe soon enough;
(hands savings book to KIMO)
These savings are for you, my children.
And as the price is more than right,
You've got a good deal extra to start
Kolea (to KIMO): Now, you can make
those burdensome trips to
But, oh, I'll miss meeting all those
(slips her arm into KIMO 's and snuggles up to him)
Darling! There's something we could
That would make me so very happy ...
Kimo: Anything you want, dear.
Kolea: Oh good! Let's have our own,
Mr. Kua & Kimo: Oh-h-h-h !
As love inspires our plot
A good deal we've been taught;
Come join with us and raise a cup
As nuptial joys lift up and up!
Our (their) coffee-house book shop.
We'll share our Kona crop
For witty words you drop:
Come join with us and raise a cup
Before our (the) price goes up and up!
Jerré Tanner is a composer of symphonic and operatic music and his life encompasses much of the American pioneer spirit. He began life in Pennsylvania, a descendent of pre-Revolutionary War immigrants conjoined with native Americans. He moved with his parents to Iowa in his formative teens, benefiting scholastically and musically from an excellent educational system. Having earned an undergraduate degree in music at the University of Iowa he moved westward to San Francisco, studied orchestration with Pulitzer Prize winning composer Wayne Peterson, and received an advanced degree in music composition at San Francisco State University. He then moved on westward to teach music at the University of Hawaii, Hilo Campus. For the past 28 years he has pioneered in creating a new genre of classical music symphonic and operatic works based on Hawaiian mythology, history and culture.
He has received numerous awards and grants from ASCAP, the (Hawaii) State Foundation on Culture and the Arts including a Fellowship in Music Composition (the State's highest honor), National and Hawaii Bicentennial Commissions, a Five Kahili Award from the Hawaii Visitors Bureau, a Huntington Hartford Foundation fellowship in Los Angeles, Meet-the-Composer, and the Margaret Fairbank Jory Copying Assistance grant administered by the American Music Center. His Boy with Goldfish, a heroic crossover work, was composed for the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra's Bicentennial season. It was later recorded digitally (1979) by the London Symphony
Orchestra [Albany compact disc TROY 053]. His tone poem Aukele (The Swimmer), concert aria Fragrant Harbor (Hong Kong), Suite from The Singing Snails and the Warrior's Aria from The Naupaka Floret also appear on CD. He is a composer member of the American Music Center, Opera America and the Iowa and American Composers Forums.
Harvey Hess is a lyric poet with strong ties to music. His books of poetry include Skipped Stones honored at the Chicago Book Clinic, Orchid Art and the Orchid Isle and Hawaii Lyrics. His poetry appears in numerous periodicals, and his English language haiku also receive international publication. He has collaborated with composer Tanner on four operas, concert arias and several song cycles. Their most recent collaboration is the song cycle In Settlers' Cemetery created for the sesquicentennial observance of Iowa's statehood. Poet Hess is currently teaching at the University of Northern Iowa and Hawkeye Community College and is music critic for several newspapers and periodicals.
Timm Rolek, a brilliant young American conductor with an exceptional talent for the lyric theatre, studied conducting with Herbert Blomstedt and Neville Mariner and is a graduate of the University of Minnesota. He served on the Metropolitan Opera music staff and worked directly under James Levine. His guest conductor appearances include the Ravinia Festival, Chautauqua Opera, Opera Delaware, Minnesota Opera and Skylight Opera. Currently he is Principal Conductor of the Fargo-Moorhead Civic Opera and Music Director of Grand Forks (North Dakota) and Heartland Symphony Orchestras. He is a regular contributor to Arts on 2 for Twin Cities Public Television and has produced programs on 20th century music for Northern Lights Public Radio.
Marilyn Taylor is a winner of the Metropolitan National Council Auditions and a recipient of an Opera America/George London Grant. She has performed leading roles with Bonn Opera, Indiana University Opera Theatre, Des Moines Metro Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Piedmont Opera, Kentucky Opera, Long Beach Opera and others. Her concert performances include the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Louisville Symphony and Louisville Bach Society, Toledo Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony and Winston-Salem/Piedmont Triad Symphony. Along with a busy performance schedule Ms. Taylor teaches at the North Carolina School of the Arts, School of Music at Winston-Salem.
William Livingston had his Metropolitan Opera debut December 1994. He studied voice with Elizabeth Cole at the University of Hawaii, was a Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions finalist and held apprenticeships at the Met, San Francisco Opera, Seattle Opera and Santa Fe Opera. He won the Verdi Contest at Busetto, the Mario Del Monaco Competition, and the Mozart Prize among others. He has performed leading roles at Opera North (Leeds), Opera Lisbon, New York City Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Dallas Opera, the Des Moines Metro Opera, Vancouver Opera, Hawaii Opera Theatre, Seattle Opera, Greater Miami Opera, and others.
David Small has specialized in premiere productions of new operas as well as performing a broad range of lyric and dramatic baritone roles from the standard repertory. He holds a masters degree from the University of Cincinnati, College Conservatory of Music. His opera performances include leading roles with the New York City Concert Opera, Nevada Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Cincinnati Opera, Sarasota Opera, New Jersey State Opera, among others. His recording credits include two CDs for Hal Leonard Publications. Along with a busy performance schedule he currently teaches at City College of New York.
The Prague Chamber Orchestra is recognized internationally as one of the world's finest chamber orchestras. Formed in 1951 the musicians of the Orchestra established from the beginning the ability to perform, without conductor, the works of the 18th century classical masters and Czech masters of the 18th through 20th centuries. Consequently their performances present a high degree of sensitivity to ensemble and impart a feeling of chamber music even when all thirty-five members of the Orchestra are playing. The Prague Chamber Orchestra performs regularly in Prague and tours throughout Europe, the United States and Japan. They have made over one hundred recordings for Supraphon, Eurodisc, EMI Records, Polydor, Nippon Columbia, Telarc and their own label PKO. These recordings have won numerous prizes including the Grand Prix du Disque, Wiener Flütenuhr Prize and several Golden Records for sales over one million copies.
The Ipu is an ancient Hawaiian double gourd percussion instrument used to accompany the dance. Sound is made by stamping on the bottom and slapping on the side. The Ipu used in this recording was made on Hawaii Island by Alapaki Tampos.
The harpsichord used for this recording is a reconstruction of a J. Ruckers original (1624) by Frantisek Vyhnálek, Hovorcovice, 1993. It was prepared and tuned by Petr Sefl, tuning Neidhard 1927 (442 hz).
Recording executive producer is J.Paul Thomas, recording producer Milan Slavicky, engineer Stanislav Sykora and assistant engineer Jirí Hesouh. The recording was made September 19 through 21, 1994 at Supraphon Studio Domovina, Prague, Czech Republic.
The Kona Coffee Cantata (ASCAP)
English verse libretto by Harvey Hess
a comic chamber opera in one act
Kimo - WILLIAM LIVINGSTON
harpsichord - Ludmila Chermáková
1 Recitativo Accompagnato 1:43
7 Recitativo Accompagnato 1:21
8 Duet (Kimo & Mr. Kua) 2:57
9 Recitativo Accompagnato 1:29
12 Duet (Kolea & Mr. Kua) 2:41
14 Recitativo Accompagnato 1:48
17 Duet (Kolea & Kimo) 4:12
18 Recitativo Accompagnato 4:54
cover: Picnic in the Coffee Fields (detail) oil painting by John Thomas
© 1986 MALAMA ARTS INC. (ASCAP)
1994 Ars Oceania Incorporated · all rights reserved
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