"An exquisite night of music in a private Hualalai venue, as tenor, Cody Austin sings directly to you with a tribute to Mario Lanza. No other venue will give you the up close and personal experience as the Hoku Concert Series, entering its 11th season, benefiting community organizations in West Hawaii. The Aloha Performing Arts Company is honored to be the recipient again this year. Seating is limited to 75 guests."
American tenor Cody Austin is quickly becoming one of the most promising singing actors of his age, and it has been noted that he possesses a voice with "a warm, rich quality... produced with an evenness that's rare."
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| Tenor Cody Austin |
For $75.00 we could see this winner of the Mario Lanza
scholarship contest at a Hoku concert benefiting the Aloha Performing Arts Co. Its draw for us was that it was also held at
the Hualalai Resort. This is the premier
resort in Kona, also known as the Four Seasons, and the concert was being held
in the owner’s clubhouse. The resort
complex is surrounded by single family homes in the $3 to $5 million dollar
range and this was their private party area.
David and I arrived early and met the founder of the Hoku
series, Frank Meyer and his wife Anita.
The other guests arrived and gathered at the bar. We were thrilled that we had
this opportunity to hear Cody as well as meet other opera lovers on the Big
Island. Hawaii Opera Theater is one of
the better regional opera companies and we are frustrated that we are so close,
but not on the same island, to see this opera season. Now David had a chance to talk opera with
Frank and Anita and connect with a similar group of people we knew in Anchorage
when David was on the Anchorage Opera Board.
Cody beautifully sang his repertoire that we later learned was on the CD
we purchased. It is mostly tenor favorites and some Mario Lanza songs. His voice is clear, strong, and
delightful. So is his blonde Texas
face. He told us they made him lose his
Texas accent at vocal school.
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| Siegfried |
(Not so
for Jay Hunter Morris who was Siegfried in Saturday’s Metopera Live. This amazing star has a distinct Paris, Texas
twang in his interview with Renee Fleming).
At the Hoku intermission, we met Barbara, an intriguing woman whom, I
am sure, we were able to just scratch the surface of her fascinating life. She introduced us to her evil stepdaughter, “Evil”
whom she was with the next day at "Siegfried".
Then the Cody Austin intermission was over and I went back to my
seat. The gentleman seated next to David
was talking to the handsome man and his smitten girlfriend sitting in front of us about how amusing it was that he just
saw this man fall right into the water outside the door. And coincidentally that man had just been sitting next to
him!
I caught the tail end of this conversation and had to
process the first part quickly once I realized that the man he was talking about
was my husband! I asked him a quick
question to confirm what he had just said, and was out the door to find
David. I was petrified that he had
fallen and hurt his newly replaced knee or worse, a hip. As I stepped out the door, Frank was there to
say that David was fine and in the bathroom.
Cody was right there ready to come back on stage. Let the play go on!
On without David and I.
I called into the men’s room. No
answer. For some reason Barbara was
trailing after me. We quickly went to
the parking lot to see if David had already gone to the car. I told Barbara she didn’t have to stay with
me, I’d figure it out, but she said she was always up for an adventure. We waited by the car and finally saw a dripping
figure approach. She mercifully left us
alone. David was thankfully walking
fine - no apparent damage. He explained that he had had to go
to the bathroom, so he went out the door quickly at the end of our conversation
with Barbara. I didn’t notice because he
is almost always behind me anyway, and when he didn’t come to the seat, I am
used to him getting waylaid by someone or just adjusting his shoes.
Cody was already poised to go onstage and was standing at
the junction of the path to the bathroom.
Frank was next to him and directed David to go to the right. There were people blocking the way on the concrete
path, and David was in a hurry, so he turned right – right into the water
feature reflecting pond next to the walkway.
He said “As I stepped into it, oh my God, it was water, then
I thought it would be shallow, but it wasn’t.
It was up about to my knee. I
fell half way in and caught myself and got wet up to my thighs on my right side
and then climbed out where I fell in.
Mainly I was embarrassed; and everyone was concerned that I was
hurt. They wanted me to go to the bar
and get a towel and then go to the athletic club area to dry off. I finally got to do my business in the
bathroom, dripping wet. I wanted to quickly
get dried off and not miss the rest of the concert.”
At the car, it was apparent that he didn’t have any other
pants. We had our suitcases since we had
stayed overnight in Volcano the night before, so he had another shirt and
underwear. I pulled out the pants I wore that day which
fit him perfectly. He dressed right there by moonlight in the parking lot beside the car. David said “I can
finally get into your pants.”
We were able to reenter the concert after the third song and
no one pointed or made a fuss. We were in
time to hear Nessun dorma!
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