Scraps Of Mind

Madam Butterfly

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Furthering our Opera Education, Allan and I returned to the Plenty Ranges Theatre on Saturday to take in another Melbourne Opera production. This time front row seats for Madam Butterfly by Puccini.

In a word…Sensational!

Basically the story line for this opera is that of Cio-Cio-San (Butterfly), a 15 year old Japanese geisha who marries an American naval officer, Pinkerton. But this is not the story of two star crossed lovers. Pinkerton is an arrogant macho ratbag who thinks the local culture is humorous and trivial (typical colonial attitude I guess). He buys his bride from a marriage broker on the understanding that he can rescind the contract any time he likes. Unfortunately Butterfly doesn’t realise this and thinks the marriage is for real. Seems it was love at first sight for her and she was prepared to renounce her culture and her religion for him. Her family reject her and cast her out for this and she is dishonoured.

After having had his fun, Pinkerton sails off with his ship and three years later Butterfly still hasn’t heard from him and her money is almost gone. But she has complete faith that he will return. She rejects a new bridegroom that the marriage broker tries to foist on her. The American Consul tries to tell her that Pinkerton is not returning. She refuses to accept this and produces a son which Pinkerton doesn’t know about.

At last Pinkerton’s ship arrives in the harbour and Butterfly is beside herself with excitement and prepares for his arrival. She sits up through the night but he doesn’t show and finally she goes to get some sleep in the morning. Pinkerton arrives, together with his All American Bride intending to take his son away with them back to the US. When the insensitive clod realises how devastated Butterfly will be, he bravely dumps the job of telling her on to the Consul and runs away.

Butterfly finds out what his plan is and says she’ll give up her son if Pinkerton comes for him in person. Then she takes the dagger with which her father committed hara kiri and removes her ‘inconvenient’ self from the scene. Pinkerton arrives to find her dead whilst her son sits in his old rocking chair waving an American flag and wearing a blindfold.

Normally I’m not a big fan of the overly emotional love story, but this really got to me. The set was simple but effective, the characters were strongly played and the emotional tension was there throughout for me. And to top it off, Puccini writes a mean score.

Suzanne Donald gave a convincing performance as the shy 15 year old Butterfly, maturing to a young mother but still with the innocence of inexperience. And Stephen Smith, who played Don Giovanni last year, is disturbingly good at playing arrogant ratbag males. So good in fact that when he came out for the curtain call the audience didn’t know whether to clap or to boo him. So they did both!

A wonderful night’s entertainment and I think I can safely say I’m no longer an Opera Virgin. But this is my third opera experience in less that a year. So does that mean I’ve become an Opera Buff?!?

Other related posts:
Turandot…or ‘Mastermind Chinese Style’
No longer an Opera Virgin
The Ballet - Don Quixote