Review: Madam Butterfly, Leeds Grand Theatre, Friday 19th January 2018
FATAL Passions embrace Opera North's Winter Season at Leeds Grand and on tour. In the case of Puccini's Madam Butterfly, a fifteen year old Geisha girl sacrifices everything for American Navy Lieutenant B F Pinkerton. He has been introduced to her by a disreputable marriage broker.
Three years pass and Butterfly refuses to accept that Pinkerton regarded the marriage as nothing more than a transitory arrangement and he has now abandoned her. The heart rending scene in which Butterfly shows their two year-old son to Sharpless, the American Consul, is matched by one of Puccini's most explosive orchestral outbursts. The distraught Butterfly cries "Today his name is Sorrow. Tomorrow, when Pinkerton returns, his name will be Joy."
Revealing details in Tim Albery's enduring production maximise the emotional power and the 'Kleenex effect' of crucial scenes. Butterfly tears the Stars and Stripes off the wall. She madly waves the flag from the balcony of her all-American house when Pinkerton's ship is sighted in Nagasaki Bay. The bitter truth that she has been abandoned finally sinks in and Butterfly resolves to kill herself. Dressed once more in a flowing Japanese kimono, she calmly takes Pinkerton's framed portrait and places it face down on the dressing table.
Three singers have inhabited their roles ever since the production's 2007 premiere. The characterisations of Anne Sophie Duprels as Butterfly, Ann Taylor as her devoted maid, Suzuki, and Peter Savidge as Sharpless have continued to mature like vintage wine. Lithuanian tenor Merunas Vitulskis makes his Opera North debut as Pinkerton. His and Duprels' voice are beautifully melded in Viene La Sera (the love duet) although, for me, neither singer has the power to 'knock out the stalls'.
Scenic designer's Hildegard Bechtler's semi-transparent sliding screens, ramps and terraces suggest civilised domesticity against an ochre tinted backdrop of sea and mountains. Peter Mumford's atmospheric lighting gives added poignancy to the dramatic orchestral Intermezzo as Suzuki, Butterfly and the child settle down to their all night vigil.
The arresting visual imagery is matched in the pit by the Orchestra of Opera North's translucent account of Puccini's erotically charged score. Martin Pickard conducts with due consideration for balance. I wouldn't have minded in the least if the musicians had been given their heads to let rip in the big climaxes.
by Geoffrey Mogridge
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