Dong Hyeok Lee - Madama Butterfly revision
Madama Butterfly Hundred Years Later
Madama Butterfly’s popularity never seems to die with a full house at the Metropolitan Opera even after over a hundred years since its first performance in 1907. This production of Madama Butterfly by the late Anthony Minghella first showed at the MET two years ago and has received great reviews since then. Minghella had a successful career as a director in the film industry with an Academy Award for Best Director in 1996 for The English Patient. Minghella made his debut in opera with directing Madama Butterfly first performed at the English National Opera in 2005. It soon made its way to the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre in the same year and finally to the Metropolitan Opera in September of 2006.
On Tuesday evening, American soprano Patricia Racette as Cio-Cio-San and Italian tenor Roberto Aronica as Pinkerton both fell ill and unable to perform that night. For these two main roles, Maria Gavrilova played Cio-Cio-San and Marcello Giordani played Pinkerton. Gavrilova, playing the 15-year old Cio-Cio-San, or Madame Butterfly, went on with the performance in a professional fashion. She had the powerful and yet innocent voice that this role required. The opera is about a young geisha, Cio-Cio-San, who marries a US Naval Officer named Pinkerton, whose performance by Giordani was decent compared to Gavrilova because this low tenor had a small voice in which in time to time was enclosed by the strong orchestra. Cio-Cio-San in result of loving him goes through disownment from her family. However Pinkerton does not have the same feelings of love for Cio-Cio-San, and even leaves her for three long years. The purity of the girl leaves her to believe that he will come back and she waits for him with strong hope. Pinkerton comes back to Cio-Cio-San three years later but with his new American wife. This shocks Cio-Cio-San and it leads to a powerful ending.
The production team shows the importance of the ending in great manner. The use of lighting in the end gave a powerful effect and better understanding of the characters’ feelings. Not only the lighting however, the mirror in the ceiling, the great costumes, and the choreography was in result of the experienced and hard working production team. The music in this opera could not go unnoticed. Written by Giacomo Puccini, the music was wonderfully performed by the orchestra. Conductor Patrick Summers successfully led the orchestra into perfect sync with the singers on stage. This powerful music gave great effect into the opera in a whole which merely reading the libretto could never do.
Performances of Madama Butterfly at the Metropolitan Opera for the 2008-2009 season will run through March 7, 2009 with the next performance being held this Wednesday, November 19, 2008.
Leave a Response
You must be logged in to post a comment.