Hawaiian Opera: an Exposition and Development of a Life-Vision

O round!
O round,
round moon!
In fullest white
night bright.

Thus sings Hina, goddess of the Moon, just after the luminous lunar orb has been created. This is but a tiny peek into Hawaiian/Polynesian mythology and its abundant color and romance.
Poet Harvey Hess and I were greatly inspired by the mythology and history 0f the Hawaiian Islands and spent most of our adult life bringing it to the lyric stage. The two volumes of this book present our efforts – the poetic artifact as well as the historic setting for how we became involved in each of the 12 projects on which we worked.
Now, at this late date in my life, I was compelled to collect files condemned to archive boxes and bring them together as first, a testament to our admiration of Hawaii’s world-class cosmology and second, as an exposition of our dramatic vision. It is my hope the reader of these volumes awaken to the sheer romance of our source material and launch on her/his own voyage of discovery into the passions of the sages who long-ago looked forth from the verdant shores of these isles.
This is Volume 1 of 2.