Puccini : Madama Butterfly
Chorus of Madam Butterfly
The Orchestra of Scottish Opera
Marco Guidarini
Scottish Opera and Madama Butterfly have a long and involved history together. It was in the opening season of the company in 1962, it was in the 25th Anniversary season, it was the opera Sir Alexander Gibson, the company's founding Musical Director, chose for his last public performances, and I half-expected to see it during last year's 50th Anniversary season, but instead it has been scheduled to mark the opening of the re-vamped Theatre Royal, Glasgow. The fact that the building is a bit behind schedule is neither here nor there; you get the point, Puccini's opera is and always has been a signature piece for Scottish Opera.
Not that they stretched to a new production on this occasion. On the other hand, if it ain't broke, why fix it? David McVicar's 2000 production is still more than serviceable. Sparsely stylish, clearly comprehensible and uncluttered, it creates a believable space and characters. The only point I had to smile at (and it was hardly either the director's fault, or his problem, this far on) was seeing a blond little boy in the last act - as is required by the libretto - when the Pinkerton was almost as dark as the Butterfly. Opera clearly supersedes genetics!
As promised after Don Pasquale, I shifted my seats further back in the auditorium. While sitting at the rear of the stalls presents its own acoustical peculiarities in the way the sound reflects off both the curved walls and the underside of the Circle, I could at least enjoy hearing all the singers as well as the detail of the orchestra quite comfortably, and they were worth hearing, with sound orchestral playing under the baton of Marco Guidarini. There was excellent support from the secondary roles; Andrew McTaggart as an endearingly hapless Yamadori, Adrian Thomson, an alert and malicious Goro, Hanna Hipp, simple, straightforward Suzuki, and the ever-reliable Christopher Purves's reluctantly involved and sympathetic Sharpless.
José Ferrero brought a towering physical presence and a robust, if slightly expressionless tenor voice to Pinkerton, though I have to say I don't envy any tenor taking on this part. It must be extremely difficult to create, never mind convey, any complexities in this character in order to make something more of him than a two-dimensional cad, and I've rarely seen it achieved. Ferrero was not one of those, but he gave an honest enough performance.
In the end, however, Madama Butterfly is, and should be, all about Cio-Cio San. This is the archetypal Puccini soprano role, his ultimate victim, and it's no wonder lyric sopranos love to include it in their repertoire. It's a tremendously meaty part, both dramatically and vocally, and Hye-Youn Lee did herself proud in both respects. Her voice is sure and focused, well-placed, never shrill and never tremulous, and she built the part nicely, from the naive bride of the first act to the doomed mother of the last, without ever indulging in tasteless histrionics.
If I can't give the overall performance completely unreserved approval, it's because in the end, it lacked that tiny degree of an indefinable something, the something that should make your throat catch, and rip your heart out and stomp all over it. Puccini wrote unabashed tear-jerkers, and however irritated I may get with his emotional manipulation, if I'm not at least sniffling a bit by the final curtain, then there's a missing ingredient somewhere. Gibson never failed at providing that little extra touch of theatrical magic in his Puccini. Still, this was a solidly reliable evening's entertainment, and certainly worth hearing.
[Next : 8th June]
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