POVERA BUTTERFLY!

 Valeria Chibis, Charles Gray, Emi Noguchi, Tomoko Nago, Maestro Elizabeth Hastings, 

Nikhil Krishna, and Jihye Seo

It took several hours from the curtain call for us to compose ourself sufficiently to summarize our deeply felt experience with Amore Opera's production of Puccini's popular masterpiece Madama Butterfly. There were two aspects of the production that produced these intense feelings and we will deal with them in turn.

To begin with, soprano Jihye Seo turned in a performance that went straight to the heart. There was not a single vocal flaw to distract us from her dramatically valid performance. With beauty of tone, accuracy of phrasing, and excellent Italian, Ms. Seo caught nuances of Cio-Cio-San's journey that was no less challenging than Violetta's journey in Verdi's La Traviata.

She begins her journey as a naïve 15 year-old child with more stars in her eyes than there are in the sky on the night of her honeymoon. As a child she shows her few dear possessions to the older man to whom she has pledged her love.  She is innocent to the ways of the world and the cultural differences between herself and the transient American naval officer. She is all too willing to cut herself off from her family and her Buddhist faith. 

In the next act, we see from her meeting with Sharpless, the United States Consul at Nagasaki (Charles Gray), that she knows little of the ways of the world and is so immersed in denial of reality that the kindly Consul just gives up. Ms. Seo does show us a Cio-Cio San who has kept her faith in Pinkerton's return and has also made efforts to westernize herself.   Her "Un bel di vedremo" did not fail to move us with vocal beauty and dramatic honesty.  Poor Suzuki (Tomoko Nago) stands by Butterfly, seemingly more aware of reality but unwilling to confront her. The smarmy Goro (Mark Martinez) is only interested in how he can profit from the situation. 

By the time she is confronted with indisputable evidence of her abandonment, the childlike innocence drops away and Ms. Seo gives us a strong young woman who sees the future and rejects the two unacceptable options. Marriage to a wealthy oft-divorced Prince Yamadori (a most effective Ting-Yi Chen, who also made a fine angry Bonzu) or eking out a living to support her son without familial support seem equally unacceptable. With true grit and undeniable purpose she chooses the one option that her culture offers, that of suicide. Her fraught encounter with Kate, Pinkerton's new wife, offers her some relief that her beloved son will be cared for.  

So dramatically accurate and emotionally moving was Ms. Seo's performance that we had tears rolling down our face from Act II until the powerful ending.  We might add that Nikhil Krishna's Pinkerton accurately represented the attitude of a narcissist. It is not just the carelessness of colonialism but a true lack of compassion. Mr. Krishna's performance grew from Act I to Act III although the character of Pinkerton did not. He is simply a selfish child abuser whose final aria "Ah, son vil" is histrionic and performative. He will get back on his ship and will have forgotten this youthful episode. We secretly hoped that Kate (a lovely Valeria Chibis) will make his life miserable and devote herself to helping young Sorrow (Emi Noguchi) deal with the stress of growing up in 19th century America as a mixed race child.

As you may have guessed, Dear Reader, we were quite immersed in the story and now we will tell you the cause. It was the astute direction of Tami Swartz, whose Japanese background and diligent scholarship made the story more real, more impactful, and ultimately more satisfying. Some opera goers may think of Puccini's masterpiece as a love story but we have always seen it as a story of rampant colonialism and narcissistic child abuse. We were glad that Ms. Swartz sees it the same way. This production dates back about two decades when she did the research to make the production more authentic, tweaked the libretto, and starred as Cio-Cio San with her husband Adam Klein as Pinkerton for Harrisburg Opera.

Although we generally disapprove of changes to the classics, in this case the tweaking actually improved upon the original with a few minor changes and additions to the Illica/Giacosa libretto that enhanced the storytelling. The awkward playing space did not stand in the way of Ms. Swarz' directorial creativity. Even the aisles were put into service for the parade of relatives coming to the wedding. Other people in the audience seemed as enthralled as we were as evidenced by conversations in the lobby and in the ladies room. A standing ovation confirmed our impression.

Musical values were fine with Maestro Elizabeth Hastings in firm control of the orchestra. Costumes by Sarah Pearson seemed accurate to the time period which had been pushed back to mid 19th century for reasons of historical accuracy.

We cannot end without noting that the excellent cast deserved a more suitable playing space with the orchestra in a pit. Unfortunately, affordable spaces like that in Manhattan are as scarce as proverbial hen's teeth. These young singers occasionally had difficulty cutting through the dense orchestration, with the exception of Ms. Seo, whose soprano rose right above the orchestra. Lighting was also a problem with the entire space brightly lit, making the excellent titles rather difficult to read. Minor quibbles aside, it was a most worthwhile evening, one we will not soon forget. Actually we plan to attend another performance to see how things work with a different cast, so watch for an addendum.

© meche kroop