Opera review: Puccini’s Madam Butterfly by the English National Opera

3 / 5 stars

THE opening scene of the late Anthony Minghella’s staging of Madam Butterfly, first seen in 2005, is one that remains indelibly in the mind.

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This latest revival by Sarah Tipple lacks the tug at the heartstrings

In the minute’s silence before the music begins a dancer emerges over the brow of the gleaming black stage in a white kimono and long red sash that unfurls behind her. 

She performs a fan dance, imitating the wings of a butterfly, and the background lighting darkens to crimson. It is a stunning evocation of the fate in store for the young geisha who is deserted by her American lover.

Madam Butterfly was the only opera directed by Minghella, whose award-winning films included The English Patient and The Talented Mr Ripley. His cinematographic eye is evident throughout, assisted by his wife Carolyn Choa as associate director/choreographer. 

Floating paper lanterns, cascading cherry blossom and paper origami doves evoke traditional Japanese theatre, as do Han Feng’s authentic-looking costumes. 

The multi-coloured changes of light by Peter Mumford and Michael Levine’s set of translucent moving screens suggest the precarious foundations on which Butterfly’s dreams are built. 

Opera: the facts

Oddly though, this latest revival by Sarah Tipple lacks the tug at the heartstrings that is essential in telling the tale of a naive 15-year-old girl from Nagasaki who is deceived into believing she is married to American naval officer FB Pinkerton, played here by David Butt Philip with the necessary sense of entitlement.

George von Bergen’s Sharpless, the American consul who is lumbered with sorting out the mess, can hardly restrain his impatience. 

The problem is that the central figure, Butterfly, played by American soprano Rena Harms in her role debut as Cio-Cio San, doesn’t draw our sympathy. While Stephanie Windsor-Lewis’s maid Suzuki is a subtly defined piece of acting, Harms’s Butterfly is based in the West rather than Far East.

Added to which, her voice tends to shrillness when striving to be heard in the cavernous auditorium. 

Harms is not helped by the thundering brass of the English National Opera orchestra under Sir Richard Armstrong who uses his baton like a bludgeon.

The ENO chorus, fresh from being crowned Opera Chorus Of The Year in the International Opera Awards 2016, is in great form, and the Humming Song is a joy, despite the disruptive second interval.

Puccini’s Madam Butterfly by the English National OperaThe Coliseum, London WC2 (Tickets: 020 7845 9300/eno.org; £12-£125)

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