A scene from Madama Butterfly at the Metropolitan Opera Photo: Metropolitan Opera/Ken Howard
Sunday 8 April at 6.00pm on RNZ Concert
Metropolitan Opera 2018 Season
PUCCINI: Madama Butterfly
A young Japanese geisha in Nagasaki clings to the belief that her arrangement with a visiting American naval officer is a loving and permanent marriage
Cio-Cio-San................ Ermonela Jaho
Pinkerton..................... Roberto Aronica
Suzuki.......................... Maria Zifchak
Sharpless .................... Roberto Frontali
Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra/Marco Armiliato (EBU)
The opera takes place in the Japanese port city of Nagasaki at the turn of the last century, at a time of expanding American international presence. Japan was hesitantly defining its global role, and Nagasaki was one of the country’s few ports open to foreign ships. Temporary marriages for foreign sailors were not unusual.
Hui He as Cio-Cio San and Roberto Aronica as Pinkerton Photo: Ken Howard/MetropoltanOpera
The story triggers ideas about cultural and sexual imperialism for people far removed from the opera house, and film, Broadway, and popular culture in general have riffed endlessly on it. The lyric beauty of Puccini’s score, especially the music for the thoroughly believable lead role, has made Butterfly timeless.
A scene from Madama Butterfly at the Metropolitan Opera Photo: Ken Howard/MetropolitanOpera
Puccini achieved a new level of sophistication with his use of the orchestra in this score, with subtle colourings and sonorities throughout. But the opera rests squarely on the performer of the title role: on stage for most of the time, Cio-Cio-San is the only character that experiences true (and tragic) development. The singer must convey an astounding array of emotions and characteristics, from ethereal to fleshly to intelligent to dreamy-bordering-on-insane, to resigned in the final scene.
