On May 11, I went to see Madam Butterfly with a friend at the NY Met Opera.
Madam Butterfly (in Italian Madama Butterfly) is one of opera’s most enduring tales of unrequited love. Puccini’s poignant score follows the tragic tale of Cio Cio San, a young Japanese girl who falls in love with American naval officer Pinkerton, with devastating consequences.
The Plot: Pinkerton marries a young woman (age 15), named Cio-Cio San in a Japanese marriage. This traps Cio-Cio San (madam butterfly) with Pinkerton but Pinkerton is free to leave whenever he likes. Pinkerton returns to the USA for 3 years. We see Cio-Cio San with her maid, Suzuki. They are running out of money. The marriage broker finds another rich husband for her, but she refuses. Pinkerton returns finally, but he has remarried an American woman, Kate! He returns to take their baby back to the US to be raised by his new wife. Cio-cio San commits suicide with the same knife used by her father many years ago.
Cio-Cio San was played by Lithuanian soprano Asmik Grigorian, making her NY Met Opera debut! ****
Pinkerton was played by Chilean tenor, Jonathan Tetelman (is Pinkerton the only evil tenor in all of opera?). We saw Tetelman earlier this year in La Rondine.
Suzuki was played by American mezzo-soprano Elizabeth DeShong
Sharpless was played by American baritone Lucas Meachem
Listen to the famous music from the opera (the first has half a million views and the second has 200k views)
A few reflections about this production:
The opera opens with Cio-Cio San in a silent pantomime. After a few minutes, the overture starts, lasting less than 3 minutes. Puccini famously hated long overtures. He also famously always set the scene before introducing us to the main protagonist of the story. Usually half the first act is over before we meet the bride. Puccini visualized the entire scene before writing music and this is not what he was visualizing when he wrote the music. I know this is a popular production, but I am confident Puccini would hate it.
Older productions followed Puccini’s instructions. The opera opens at the house and everyone comes to Pinkerton, including the bride later.
This production had modern set designs and old costumes. Previous productions had old set designs and modern costumes. I prefer a more traditional treatment.
The singing was superb! so beautiful. and the acting very good. You felt Cio-Cio San’s pain as she made her decision to give up her son. In the book, she actually escapes with her maid and son. But this is an opera, so the heroine has to die.
Overall, this is an opera everyone should see. Let’s just hope they return to Puccini’s original vision.
Audiences often “boo” Pinkerton, but fortunately the audience gave the appreciation to the actor playing a bad, careless character.
standing ovation for this performance!
Audience Rating: 9/10. Too many people with coughs. I wish the opera sold cough drops or candies to help get us through the opera! But also no one gave boo’s to the Pinkerton actor.
References:
https://operaforeveryoneshow.podbean.com/e/ep-37-madama-butterfly-by-puccini/
https://www.metopera.org/season/2023-24-season/madama-butterfly/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madama_Butterfly
https://www.eno.org/operas/madam-butterfly/
https://operawire.com/metropolitan-opera-2021-22-review-madama-butterfly/
https://www.metopera.org/discover/education/illustrated-synopses/madama-butterfly/
https://study.com/academy/lesson/madame-butterfly-summary-analysis.html
watch the full opera here