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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

10 Comments »

Dear gentle and cultured reader, you may recall a post I wrote a few months ago called ‘No longer an Opera Virgin’ where I went to my first Opera performance. This was Don Giovanni and was sung in English rather than Italian. And although I really enjoyed it I felt that I should reserve judgement on whether I am really an Opera Lover until I went to a full blown production sung in Italian.

Well Saturday was it!

I met up with the girlfriends that I go to the ballet with and off we went to the Opera Australia performance of Turandot at the State Theatre.

The storyline for this opera revolves around a beautiful but callous and cold hearted Chinese Princess who plays mind games with her suitors. They have to guess three riddles and when they fail then it’s off with their head. Presumably this serves to lift the mental average of the male population but you’d have to agree it’s a tad drastic.

Enter the hero Calaf, who takes one look at her, falls in love (presumably with her face rather than her personality) and immediately signs up for her quiz show. He wins and because she is such a poor loser, he offers her a deal whereby if she can guess his name in 24 hours he’ll forfiet his life (what kind of a dumb offer is that?). So our Royal Ray of Sunshine grabs the little slave girl who’s in love with Calaf and tortures her to get his name. The Slave Girl kills herself in case she weakens. I’m mentally screaming “he’s not worth it girl”. Then the Hero tells the Princess his name, kisses her and she is smitten by love and we head off to the big romantic finale.

Having given you that facetious synopsis I must also tell you that it was a wonderful production. The music and singing were sensational, the sets and costumes were gorgeous and the overall vibe was totally fantastic. The production was directed by Graeme Murphy who is one of Australia’s best choreographers. And his use of the stage and the large body of chorus members was a piece of visual art.

Our seats were in the circle which was absolutely perfect as the surtitles were at eye level and it was easy to glance at them to keep track of what was going on without them being distracting. So whilst, unlike Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, I wasn’t in danger of peeing my pants, I did enjoy it enormously and will look forward to the opportunity of seeing another Opera. Not only have I well and truly lost my Opera Virginity, but it looks like I’m well on the way to becoming an Opera Lover.

And yes, it finished with the fat lady singing!

Other related posts:

Madame Butterfly
No longer an Opera Virgin
The Ballet - Don Quixote

5 Comments »

Had my first taste of Opera at the weekend. The Melbourne Opera Co did a regional performance at the Plenty Ranges Theatre and my sister Elaine passed the flyer on to me.

I enjoy the ballet and am a subscriber to the Australian Ballet Co programme, and I have often wondered how I would feel about Opera. I’ve never been interested in listening to recordings of opera (see previous post) and, to be honest, I’m not a big fan of the soprano voice. But this presented a great opportunity to ‘give it a go’ in a terrific little theatre where there’s no such thing as a bad seat.

So Allan and I (both opera virgins) went along on Saturday to see Don Giovanni by Mozart performed by the Melbourne Opera Company.

This is basically the story of a total sleazebag who has the ambition to sleep with every female on the planet (ie Europe) and record his conquests in a book. And he’s a fair way to achieving his goal when the story starts. It’s a bit of a black comedy which ends with Don Giovanni arrogantly taking on Death and coming off second best. There were little or no props and scenery and the ‘chorus’ was a little ragged, but overall performance was very strong.

And it was a great performance which both of us really enjoyed! The whole singing of the lines thing didn’t seem weird and the cast was strong and really brought out the characters. And even the sopranos worked for me.

However the performance was in English, rather than in Italian as I was expecting. So I don’t know how much my enjoyment was based on my ability to understand the language. So I’m not sure if I’m a true opera convert yet.
I’m booked to see Puccini’s Turandot at the State Theatre in December. That will be a full over-the-top production sung in Italian which will be the real test. Bring it on!

So I’m no longer an Opera Virgin…but not yet an Opera Lover.

Other related posts:

Madam Butterfly
Turandot…or, ‘Mastermind Chinese Style’
The Ballet - Don Quixote

10 Comments »