Madama Butterfly

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King

Show – Madama Butterfly

Playwright/s/Composer/s – Composer Giacomo Puccini; libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa.

Production Company/Theatre space – (Professional) Calgary Opera, Co-Production with Arizona Opera and Opera Grand Rapids; Jubilee Auditorium.

Length – 2 Acts (3 hours, 10 minutes including one intermission.)

Genre – Tragic opera

Premise – An American solider based in Japan after Nagasaki weds a local woman (Butterfly) who believes he will rejoin her after returning to the USA; he does, but with his American wife, leaving Butterfly inconsolable.

Why this? Why now? – An American man in a blue suite, white shirt, and red tie lying and behaving badly – doesn’t seem relevant at all…

Curiosities – What would Puccini think of the phrase this production “deepens the backbone of Puccini’s music through “dramaturgy” that resonates with lived experience and historical truth”? Where was the bio for the remarkable child?

Notable Moment – The show stopping famous Un bel di, vedremo.

Notable writing – This was first performed in Milan in 1904 and is firmly entrenched in the canon. The music is, of course, brilliant and will be played for centuries to come in ways we cannot fathom and with technology we have yet to invent.

Notable performances – Yasko Sato is stunning in the eponymous role she first premiered in Sabadell, Spain.. Matthew White as Pinkerton, the initiator and cause of the disaster is, as my guest said, undeniably attractive. Fortunately, he’s not all looks, his performance was stellar. The talented Phillip Addis returns to the Calgary Opera where he should be a staple in any cast.  

Notable design/Production – Set Designer Chika Shimizu provides a sweet and simple set that is the backdrop for the one location. Costume Designers Kathleen Trott and Mariko Ohigashi indulge us with beautiful kimonos and a costume that serves as an iconic uniform of American lies, bad judgement, and uncouth behaviour.

Notable direction – Calgary is so lucky to be able to have conductor Jonathan Brandani at the helm of the Calgary Philharmonic. Stage Director Mo Zhou put the intermission after Act One leaving act two to comprise of the original Act Two and Three. This, psychologically, makes the waiting part of the opera prolonged; whether this was by design or happenstance is not clear to me. Dropping in the black curtain, that didn’t serve to cover a set change, to have us read a political history lesson made us captive to the least artistic moment of the night. Intimacy Director Anastasia St. Amand brings her trademark “men feel best with the knuckles of their hand” that continues to look artificial.

One reason to see this show – The combination of a brilliant orchestra and powerful voice should entice you to leave the cocoon of your home.