EVENINGS OF CLASSICAL MUSIC - BAHRAIN - |
PROGRAMME FOR 20 NOVEMBER 2002 |
MADAMA BUTTERFLY Opera by GIACOMO PUCCINI (1858-1924) |
Opera in three acts Libretto: Giuseppe Giacosa & Luigi Illica Premiere: 17 February 1904, Milan |
CAST (in order of appearance) Lt. B.F. Pinkerton, US Navy Goro, a marriage broker Suzuki, Butterfly's servant Sharpless, American Consul Madama Butterfly, Cio-Cio-San Bonzo, a priest, Butterfly's uncle Yamadori, a prince Kate Pinkerton |
- Richard Troxell - Jing Ma Fan - Ning Liang - Richard Cowan - Ying Huang - Yo Kusakabe - Christopheren Nomura - Constance Hauman |
French Radio Chorus & Paris Orchestra conducted by James Conlon |
In this film, director Mitterrand cuts a few passages from the complete operatic score, but luckily the damage is minimal, and it remains a beautiful presentation of this tragic story. Giacosa and Illica's libretto, based on a true story, tells of a sixteen-year-old Japanese girl (Butterfly) who marries a visiting American naval officer (Pinkerton) and bears him a child, only to be abandoned when he returns to America and his American wife. Her tragedy is compounded when several years later he returns, accompanied by his wife, to claim the young child. Rather than live with the shame, Butterfly kills herself. The character of Butterfly gives plenty of ammunition to Puccini's detractors - this is the 'weaker' sex at its weakest, and Butterfly embodies some thoroughly distasteful racial attitudes. However, the power of the music, the intensity of the drama, and Butterfly's transition from ingenuous youth to melancholy maturity within the space of just two hours are sufficiently engrossing to distract from the underlying misogyny. Along the way lies some intensely poignant music - notably the famous "Un bel di" (One fine day). But the highlight of the whole opera is Butterfly's moment of bliss - her first act love duet with Pinkerton, lasting nearly a quarter of an hour. It begins with delicate exchanges and builds towards a series of tremendous unison phrases that culminate in a shared high C of rapturous devotion. Pinkerton himself is at first all bluster and bonhomie, traits signalled by lusty quotations from 'The Star Spangled Banner' - just as Butterfly and her family are tagged with music that uses the oriental-sounding pentatonic scale. It doesn't take long, however, for him to emerge in his true colours as a self-righteous egoist, whose primary interest in Butterfly is utterly basic (he gloats that the marriage agreement is not binding). Callously detached from the suffering he causes, Pinkerton is assigned music that that resembles that of the standard Italian romantic tenor lead, an incongruity that intensifies his cruelty. But unlike the traditional tenor lead, he gets only one set-piece aria which comes shortly before the end of the opera. |
A Film by Frédéric Mitterrand Sung in Italian with English sub-titles |
Click the above button if the EOCM Home Page is not already open. |
