Tim Finn: from the Enz to the Opera

RNZ News

a day ago

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Photo:
Tim Finn
The story idea came first, the opera came about by chance.
Tim Finn had long been fascinated by Tupaia, the Tahitian star navigator who guided Captain James Cook to Aotearoa and then helped the Englishman and his crew communicate with the locals.
Tupaia was pivotal in Cook's exploration of New Zealand, but the voyage also cost him his life. He fell ill and died in what is now Jakarta, Indonesia, in December 1770.
Finn has been to Tupaia's birthplace, and he'd visited a replica of Cook's ship the Endeavour.
One day, the New Zealand pop star found himself talking about Tupaia with the Executive Director of West Australian Opera, Carolyn Chard.
She was so taken by the tragic tale, she persuaded him to make it into an opera - which he did help from a few others.
From the December 2022 NZ production of "Ihitai Avei'a - Star Navigator" in Porirua.
Photo:
Stephen A'Court
NZ Opera premiered "Ihitai Avei'a - Star Navigator" in 2021. It was co-composed by Tim Finn and Tom McLeod with Tahitian "Orero" or monologue by Célestine Hitiura Vaite.
However, we had to wait another four years to hear it on RNZ Concert.
Tomorrow's Opera on Saturday broadcast from 7pm features the West Australian Opera Company (fitting perhaps as it was that company's executive director that first suggested it had operatic potential) with tenor Emmanual Fonoti-Fuimoano singing the role of Tupaia, while Teddy Tahu Rhodes plays Cook.
Composer and lyricist Tim Finn at the piano during rehearsals for Ihitai 'Avei'a - Star Navigator.
Photo:
screen grab
The opera focusses on the often difficult relationship between the pair, one a European used to thinking his technology and culture were the most advanced on the planet, the other a proud Tahitian who saw no reason to subjugate himself to his fair-skinned hosts.
Tim Finn spoke with RNZ Concert host Bryan Crump ahead of the broadcast about the process of creating an opera, and his collaborators Célestine Hitiura Vaite and Tom McLeod.
Finn would send song lines to McLeod who would then send back a more fleshed-out operatic score.
Hitiura Vaite brought a Tahitian perspective and "Orero" to the opera in the form of a spoken monologue.
The Split Enz co-founder (the band's first album
Mental Notes turns 50
this July) also did a bit of research down at the opera house - Puccini's music became a favourite.
Tupaia would spend the last months of his life on this leaky boat.
Photo:
RNZ / Tracy Neal
While Tupaia and Cook changed the course of history, their relationship was not a happy one. Cook did not warm to the Tahitian, while Tupaia struggled with the British food Cook insisted that he eat.
Crump asked Finn if he considered reprising one of Split Enz's hit songs, "Six Months in a Leaky Boat", for the opera.
No, but he is considering writing another operatic piece.
Having just turned 73, Finn isn't sure he has another full opera in him, but he's definitely interested in creating a chamber opera, if NZ Opera were interested.
"Collaboration's the way to go," he says.