A Japanese Tragedy in Music and Vision 26 febbraio

A Japanese Tragedy
A new 'Butterfly' production in Rome,
reviewed by GIUSEPPE PENNISI

Rome's Teatro dell'Opera follows the 'season system'; thus, it is not a repertory opera house. However, certain favorite operas and productions are presented every couple of years for six to ten performances. Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly is one of these. The performances are normally sold out and the productions are on stage for decades. Specifically, a production with sets by Tito Varisco and stage direction by Aldo Trionfo has been offered for nearly thirty years; it was a highly dramatic -- indeed melodramatic- staging of the opera called by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa -- the authors of the libretto -- 'a Japanese tragedy'. In that production there was a lot of action, especially in the first act in the wedding scene when the stage was crowded with relatives of the protagonist in very colorful kimonos. In short, it was a tear-jerker as seen through the eyes of an audience who would enjoy blood-and-guts verismo. This was neither Puccini's intention nor that of the authors of the libretto, even though it could very well have been that of David Belasco, the celebrated Broadway author whose one-act play had inspired the opera. Also the Varisco-Trionfo staging hinged upon quite a bit of Japanese folklore. As time went by, the audience's tastes also changed: during the last few years, Teatro dell'Opera has borrowed a more sober, but quite effective production by Stefano Vizioli (stage direction) and Aldo Rossi (stage sets) from the Teatro Comunale of Bologna.
On 21 February 2012, a brand new Madama Butterfly was unveiled, co-produced with the Teatro Massimo of Palermo where it can be seen in early September. The production may travel to other Italian theatres and abroad. I mentioned the now retired Tito Varisco/Aldo Trionfo production because the concept of the new staging is the opposite of what used to be the standard fare for Madama Butterfly in Rome and in several theatres for decades.

Daniela Dessì in the title role of Puccini's 'Madama Butterfly' at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, with Alexey Dolgov as Pinkerton. Photo © 2012 Corrado Maria Falsini. Click on the image for higher resolution
Before reporting on the musical aspects, a few words on the production team and on the staging's basic assumptions. The stage director is Giorgio Ferrara, a well experienced director of movies and plays but with limited experience of opera; he is the General Manager of the Spoleto Festival where he has directed two one act operas respectively in 2010 and 2011. The stage sets are signed by Giorgio Quaranta, a well-known painter, set and costume designer and movie director; he was awarded the Oscar Prize in 1986 for A Room with a View. The costumes are by a comparatively young but well known designer, both domestically and internationally: Maurizio Galante -- from the Roberto Capucci atelier. For them, Madama Butterfly has only a temporal and occasional coincidence with 'verismo'; it is a true 'Japanese tragedy' as can be imagined by European and American intellectuals (as well as by the upper class) at the turn of the last century. Firstly, the stage sets are not realistic at all: a series of golden panels on the front stage and the immensity of the ocean (which separates Japan from the rest of the world, especially from Pinkerton's American world) in the background. When the panels turn, they reverse into black (a clear sign of tragedy). Also the Ocean is often under a reddish-yellow sky but becomes blue and starred at the first act duet and, of course, red during the tragic final dawn. Also when Butterfly hopes that Pinkerton will be back, the design of a huge stereotype US battleship appears over the tides. The costumes are not a folklorist and colorful imitation of Japanese kimonos but a dreamer's view: the protagonist wears a wedding robe greater-than-life, the other Japanese are in rather simple kimonos mostly in brown and yellow (mourning colors) with the exception of Butterfly's uncle -- the Buddhist Bonze -- in severe black. Of course, Pinkerton is in a Navy uniform, Sharpless in a sober but elegant morning suit and Kate in a rather unusual (willingly overdone) American ladies' suit of around 1904.

Anna Malavasi as Suzuki and Daniela Dessì in the title role of Puccini's 'Madama Butterfly' at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Photo © 2012 Corrado Maria Falsini. Click on the image for higher resolution
These details are useful to explain how the production team handled the 'Japanese tragedy'. Many ideas are borrowed from the No theatre and even from Japanese puppet theatre (eg the uncle Bonze arrives on flying platform and curses Butterfly from up above the stage). Also the chorus stands still in the middle of the stage -- like a chorus of a Greek tragedy. The action is at the front of the stage but highly stylized and with visual references to Japanese painting and sculpture (eg the way how Butterfly, Suzuki and the child cling at each other on a chair during the long night, awaiting Pinkerton's return). In a 'tragedy', there is no room for blood-and-guts drama. The movements of the singers are highly stylized; the sorrow is inside rather than in external gestures.

A scene from Puccini's 'Madama Butterfly' at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Photo © 2012 Corrado Maria Falsini. Click on the image for higher resolution
This is, no doubt, a new way to approach Madama Butterfly. The opening night audience (when I was in the theatre) seemed to appreciate it even if some of them declared during the television interviews at the end of the performance that they were 'not as moved as by a more traditional staging'. I found the approach intelligent and elegant. Certainly, closer to Puccini's intention, at the time very much under the influence of Claude Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande. The proof of the acceptance by the audience at large will be whether, after Palermo and Rome, it will be loaned by many other theatres.

Daniela Dessì in the title role of Puccini's 'Madama Butterfly' at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Photo © 2012 Corrado Maria Falsini. Click on the image for higher resolution
The version used is neither the 1904 Milan or Brescia edition but the now customary Paris 1906 production (of course, in Italian -- the Paris 1906 staging was in French rhythmic tranlastion). The musical direction was entrusted to a well known conductor, Pinchas Steinberg, with a long experience in nineteenth century music. He was the right choice because he does not conceive Madama Butterfly as simply or principally a singers' opera. Puccini was experimenting, at that time, with the most advanced orchestration techniques: there are twenty intertwined themes, including seven Japanese folk melodies used to evoke Far Eastern ambience; each one of them is assimilated into Puccini's very personal and highly sophisticated style. Steinberg kept the balance between the pit and the stage very well in the first act duet, the longest ever composed by Puccini and a trap for many conductors. He excelled during the 'hum-hum chorus' and interlude (there is no intermission between the second and the third act) where Puccini uses all his musical vocabulary; the orchestra deserved the open stage applause it received. A final point: Steinberg treated a small but significant musical moment very well -- the Bonze's curse that returns, with a different slant, when Butterfly tells about her visit to the American mission to renounce her native religion.

A scene from Puccini's 'Madama Butterfly' at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Photo © 2012 Corrado Maria Falsini. Click on the image for higher resolution
The Teatro dell'Opera assembled a good international cast. Daniela Dessì is the protagonist; in a few performances, Elena Popovskaya takes her role. Daniela Dessì has sung Madama Butterfly several times; as reported in M&V on 28 December 2011 ('Successful and Fulfilling'), she started her career with bel canto and gradually moved to heavy roles. Butterfly is a very taxing role, especially in the long second part where there is the difficult aria Un bel dì vedremo followed by the duet (with Suzuki) Scuoti quella fronda di ciliego and the engrossing tragic finale Tu?tu?tu? Piccolo Iddio. She is a soprano assoluto with a good acute and, especially, an excellent mezza voce. Her Pinkerton was a young Siberian tenor, Alexey Dolgov; he is good looking although he does not look American. His timbre is very clear and his phrasing quite good. His part is mostly in the first act -- the aria Dovunque al mondo, lo yankee vagabondo and the extended duet. In the second part, he had the right pitch in the arietta Addio fioriti asil. Sharpless and Suzuki were Audun Iversen and Anna Malavasi, both well versed in the role. The crowd of other singers were well selected, and special praise is due to the chorus, directed by Roberto Gabbiani.
Copyright © 26 February 2012 Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy

GIACOMO PUCCINI
MADAMA BUTTERFLY
TEATRO DELL'OPERA
ROME
ITALY
JAPAN
<< M&V home Concert reviews La Traviata >>