PORTLAND, Maine – Longfellow’s epic poem, “The Song of Hiawatha,” was written 152 years ago, but Michael Maglaras thinks the story can be as appealing to modern-day audiences as “Superman” or “Star Wars.”
Like Clark Kent and Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Indian hero Hiawatha has human traits and super powers, while battling evil and doing right. Maglaras, the owner of a record company, is now producing a six-CD audio recording of the poem that he plans to complete in late summer.
It’s fitting that the CDs are being recorded in a studio here in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s hometown in the year of the 200th anniversary of his birth. Maglaras hopes the project will stimulate interest in both Longfellow and the art of storytelling.
Hiawatha, Maglaras said, is a saga with enough incredible stories – giants, magicians, talking animals, Indian gods, fierce battles and a giant sturgeon that swallows Hiawatha whole – to captivate today’s audiences.
“We’re convinced this story was intended to come alive,” Maglaras said during a break in a recording session last month.
The production should appeal to people who want to be entertained in a “literate, intelligent, sensitive way,” he said. “There is a silent majority out there of people who are hungering after entertainment of a different form.”
Maglaras, 57, is a former opera singer who founded Two17 Records in Stamford, Conn. He has produced recordings of alternative rock and jazz music as well as poetry.
He began working on the Hiawatha project last year after reading the poem in its entirety and coming away impressed. The work, 22 chapters in all, is based on stories and legends of various North American Indian tribes.
When Longfellow published Hiawatha in 1855, it was an immediate success. Some 50,000 copies were sold, and it was translated into French, Italian, German and other languages.
In time, it became one of the best-known American poems. Who doesn’t know these lines: “On the shores of Gitche Gumee, Of the shining Big-Sea-Water.”
Inside a small recording studio last month, Maglaras recorded – performed is a more apt description – the final eight chapters of the poem. As he recited Hiawatha’s eight-syllable lines, his hands gestured left and right and above while his voice changed pace and pitch and volume as he transformed from character to character.
His opera training has helped in acting out more than 45 voices, ranging from the narrator to Hiawatha to seven varieties of birds, gods, old men and women, animals, monsters and magicians. Sound effects and music – drums, flutes and shaker instruments – will be added later.
“He brings a drama to the poem,” said Michael McInnis, who is recording the production at his studio. “Older works are easily dismissed because they fall into the realm of slightly archaic language. He’s bringing a drama to it that has brought the story and the beauty of the poem alive.”
Among American Indians, the poem has been criticized for perpetuating Indian stereotypes but also praised for showing Indian culture – even a romanticized version – to whites at a time when wars with Indians were still being fought.
Maglaras plans an initial run of 5,000 or so boxed CD sets with a cover photo of Longfellow in his older years, a bushy beard and flowing white hair and a cape about his shoulders. The CD sets will sell in the $30 range.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
