Puccini's music soars in Sarasota Opera's 'Butterfly'
From the first downbeat, Giacomo Puccini’s lush, unforgettable score for "Madame Butterfly" held my rapt attention. The strings in the orchestra sounded as one, and every color popped well before the curtain rose on a jewel box natural setting of a traditional Japanese house on a hill overlooking Nagasaki Bay in Sarasota Opera's compact production with minute attention to set, lighting and staging details.
We first encounter Lieutenant Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton, a U.S. Navy officer (tenor Antonio Coriano), touring the little house on a hill with the marriage broker, Goro (Sean Christiansen). Shortly after U.S. Consul Sharpless (baritone Cesar A. Mendez Silvagnoli) arrives, it is clear that Pinkerton is a heartless cad planning to marry and abandon his blushing 15-year-old bride.
Standing tall and cutting a sharp figure in his uniform, Coriano has a ringing voice that cuts brashly through the billowing orchestra, yet he is no hero. Christiansen’s opportunistic Goro uses the stage well. Sharpless, on the other hand, comes across as weak and ineffective — qualities, perhaps, intended for his character, but amplified by the fact that Mendez Silvagnoli’s voice is often obscured by the orchestra. In the second and third acts, Sharpless has additional opportunities to take the moral high ground, but his efforts fall flat. Not that Sharpless doesn't try to goad Pinkerton into considering the tender heart of the hopelessly in love Cio-Cio-San (Butterfly).
The arrival of Cio-Cio-San (soprano Joanna Parisi) and her retinue of ladies and family members is accompanied by music that softens the heart with its beauty and unquestioning optimism. Parisi plays this role with a healthy dose of contrast — child-like giddiness and joy to the depths of tragic despair. She bends her voice to the mood of the moment — from the smitten, but coy, tender maiden to the anguished and rejected single mother.
The first rejection she endures is that of her entire family when her Uncle Bonze (forcefully played by bass Young Bok Kim) interrupts the marriage celebration to accuse Butterfly of abandoning their ancestral religion, pronounce a curse upon her, and disown her entirely. The family storms out leaving her alone with Pinkerton.
The first act ends with a long, episodic love duet as the sun sets and the stars emerge over a blissful wedding night. The foreplay of the music and their tender expressions builds tension and triggered goose-bumps on my arms, sweetly consummated with the drop of the curtain.
Puccini gave poor Butterfly the best music of all. The entire second act is a tour de force for the soprano. The centerpiece is the aria Un bel di (One beautiful day) when, even after three years of waiting for Pinkerton, she still counts on his return and describes it with a caress. Parisi displays a beautiful voice, soaring easily as needed over the orchestra. Yet, Un bel di makes unusual demands requiring the highest levels of control and finesse.
Her maid, Suzuki (Laurel Semerdjian) knows the truth, but goes along with the charade while caring for both Butterfly and her tow-headed toddler, Pinkerton’s son. Semerdjian’s portrayal facilitates the dread of what is surely going to come to pass as they sit up waiting for Pinkerton’s ship to arrive.
The scenic and lighting team of David Gordon and Ken Yunker must be credited for creating the realistic, and breathtaking, sunsets and sunrise, particularly in the opening of the final act.
As Butterfly sleeps, Pinkerton returns in the early morning with his American wife. Coriano hints at Pinkerton’s remorse and cowardice but leaves us wanting a bit more. Was Pinkerton truly sorry, having realized he ruined the life of a woman he loved? Or was he just an unredeemed, lily-livered slip of a man-boy to be despised? Coriano leans toward the latter.
In this production, staged by John Basil, the poetic and highly dramatic denouement misses something in the connective tissue of timing. Yet, the basic elements were there: the blindfolded child waving an American flag, Butterfly committing suicide behind her screen, and Pinkerton’s arrival just as she dies. Butterfly cuts off any chance for Pinkerton to make amends, even if he wanted to, in a decisive and tragic end carried fully by the emotion of Puccini’s glorious music and the magnificent orchestra led by conductor Victor DeRenzi.
'Madame Butterfly'
Music by Giacomo Puccini. Sarasota Opera Orchestra conducted by Victor DeRenzi; directed by John Basil. Reviewed Feb. 11, Sarasota Opera, 61 N. Pineapple Ave., Sarasota. In repertory through March 25. 941-328-1300; sarasotaopera.org
