Review: Vancouver Opera's Madama Butterfly puts a spin on Puccini's perennial favourite
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Vancouver Opera ends its 65th season with Puccini's perennial favourite Madama Butterfly, in an extended run of five partially double-cast performances.
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The show opened Saturday evening in the Queen Elizabeth Theatre to a full and enthusiastic house — no surprise, given Butterfly's enduring popularity and appeal.
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But this isn't exactly Butterfly as seen in previous mountings of the work.
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Director Mo Zhou has made some telling changes to the mise-en-scènes, moving the setting from turn of the century Japan to the aftermath of the Second World War and the years of the American Occupation. This isn't Regieoper, in which an overriding directorial conceit becomes the justification for all manners of intervention.
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The slight shift in setting is an honest attempt at getting at the emotional heart of the story, a way of reclaiming the power and poignancy of a tale now slightly shopworn with constant repetition.
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It works.
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Zhou changes neither words nor music. True, costumes (from Kentucky Opera, Virginia Opera and Florentine Opera) are updated, but the setting (from Portland Opera) is traditional, attractive and effective, a case of having your cake and eating it too. Her most telling addition is a 'here are the facts' series of projections during the extended instrumental introduction to Act 3.
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During the run there will be two Cho-Cho-Sans and two Pinkertons: Karen Chia-Ling Ho and Adam Luther will sing the lead roles in two matinee performances. Opening night and subsequent evenings see Yasko Sato and Robert Watson as the leads.
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Watson is an effective Pinkerton: all brash adventurer in Act 1, snivelling coward in Act 3. His voice is attractive, and his sense of Italian style commendable.
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Yasko Sata has a big, dramatic sound. On opening night, her delivery was occasionally uneven, but she owns the part, delivering the role with passion and intensity, just what director Zhou clearly wanted for the part.
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The Suzuki, Cho-Cho-San's trusted maid/companion, was beautifully sung by Nozomi Kato; Julius Ahn was effectively loathsome as Goro, the so-called Marriage Broker; and Brett Polegato, a VSO stalwart, was especially fine as Sharpless, the American consul, an honest, even sympathetic man in a dishonest position. The extended interplay among Kato, Sata and Polegato made for an unusually rich and nuanced second act, which can often seem like operatic flyover country between the evocative opening and melodramatic denouement.
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