Going "cross-cultural" can be forced and tedious, but when it works, it
brings out new aspects of seemingly unrelated art forms.  The latter was
the case Saturday night in San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts, with an
affecting performance by five hula dancers of "No'eno'e Maikai'i Ke
Aloha," by Leo Delibes.

You may know the piece better as "Sous Le Dome Epais," the "Flower Duet"
from "Lakme," but Patrick Makuakane's new edition of Na Lei Hulu's "Hula
Show 2003" made perfect sense of the transplant.  Musically-artistically,
the slowly undulating, "exotic" music of the white lotus looked and felt
grand in the gentle movements of the women with flowers in their hair.
The commingling of Polynesian dance and French opera made even more
sense with the portrait of King Kalakaua looking down on the stage.

As Makuakane reminded the audience, Kalakaua had great passion for opera.
In the 1880s, a Royal Opera House was built in Honolulu, and the king
was a major sponsor of the expensive import of opera from Europe and
California - especially San Francisco, often visited by Kalakaua (and
where he died, in the Palace Hotel, in 1891).

For 20 years, Makuakane has been presenting thoughtful, deeply-felt,
moving tributes to the Islands, exploring artistic connections from
opera to the Beatles (Lennon and McCartney are represented in the present
show), from the utterly simple, ancient spiritual music to the raucous
sounds of wartime Waikiki entertainment.  "Hula Show 2003" runs through
Oct.  12.  See www.naleihulu.org

Janos Gereben/SF
www.sfcv.org
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