Puccini's Madama Butterfly from The Met - 3.02.14

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Puccini's Madama Butterfly
From the Met

Monday, 3rd February at 7.30 p.m.

Madama Butterfly, Puccini's tragic story of love, betrayal and clashing of two cultures, set in Nagasaki. Soprano Amanda Echalaz takes the title role as Cio-Cio-San, the young Japanese geisha who's deceived by the heartless American Naval officer Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton, sung by tenor Bryan Hymel. Philippe Auguin conducts the New York Metropolitan Opera House Chorus and Orchestra, in a version recorded last weekend.

Cio-Cio San.....Amanda Echalaz (Soprano)
Suzuki.....Elizabeth De Shong (Mezzo-soprano)
Pinkerton.....Bryan Hymel (Tenor)
Sharpless.....Scott Hendricks (Baritone)
Goro.....Scott Scully (Tenor)
Bonze.....Ryan Speedo Green (Bass Baritone)
Kate Pinkerton.....Maya Lahyani (Soprano)
Yamadori.....Alexey Lavrov (Baritone)
Commissioner.....Paul Corona (Bass)
Registrar.....Juhwan Lee (Tenor)
Mother.....Belinda Oswald (Soprano)
Cousin.....Patricia Steiner (Mezzo-soprano)
Aunt.....Jean Braham (Soprano)
Uncle Yakuside.....Craig Montgomery (Tenor)

New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
New York Metropolitan Opera Chorus
Philippe Auguin (Conductor).

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

"Ryan Speedo Green"?!

[Flosshilde]

Presumably the production is set in a swimming pool

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I don't care how popular it is. This opera is brilliant.

[amateur51]

"Ryan Speedo Green"?!

He's six feet five and 25 years old ferney It could be worse ... Ryan Budgiesmuggler Green?

Apparently Speedo is his dad's middle name

http://hamptonroads.com/2012/02/ryan-speedo-green-comes-home

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Apparently Speedo is his dad's middle name

... according to his Mum?

[amateur51]

... according to his Mum?

You telling him you think his Mom (surely?) is a liar, ferney?

Great voice, memorable name - what's not to like?

[doversoul1]

Do people take the story of this opera seriously or do they just enjoy the music?

[LeMartinPecheur]

Do people take the story of this opera seriously or do they just enjoy the music?

ds: a willing suspension of disbelief helps surely?

[Why do we ever take anything on a stage seriously, opera or theatre, when it comes down to it? Any passing alien would surely despair of us having brains at all!]

[Flosshilde]

Do people take the story of this opera seriously

Yes.

Why shouldn't it be taken seriously?

[doversoul1]

ds: a willing suspension of disbelief helps surely?

[Why do we ever take anything on a stage seriously, opera or theatre, when it comes down to it? Any passing alien would surely despair of us having brains at all!]

I am more than happy to believe a grieving young man entering into the underworld or being tuned into a tree (I love them all) but when the story is set in a precise time and place yet the details are so absurdly hotchpotch, and the staging so unashamedly fantastical, I find it too irksome and can't help wondering how anybody can take it seriously.

Still, opera is (initially) an entertainment and this is, I suppose, an excellent oriental fantasy.

[gradus]

I had assumed, backed by a distant memory of having read something somewhere, that the story was based on actual events.
Only managed to listen to the end of Act 1 from last night's broadcast and the performance seemed restrained but not dull, with both principals in good voice and some lovely pacing of the music. Not sure about the overall sound quality - but that was offset by my love of the piece.

[Flosshilde]

I had assumed, backed by a distant memory of having read something somewhere, that the story was based on actual events.

The libretto was based on a play, which in its turn was based on a short story - ""Madame Butterfly" is a short story by American lawyer and writer John Luther Long. It is based on the recollections of Long's sister, Jennie Correll, who had been to Japan with her husband—a Methodist missionary, and was mainly influenced by Pierre Loti's 1887 novel Madame Chrysanthème" The novel was partly autobiographical. It seems not at all unreasonable that there is an element of truth in the situation of the story, if not the details. I'm puzzled as to why doversoul should think it "absurdly hotchpotch" - it seems entirel feasible to me, and a situation that might occur now.

[kuligin]

I dont have any difficulty with the " plot" of Madama Butterfly, its the music I dislike.

I contrast Puccini to Verdi, the plot of Il Trovatore is hard to follow, and very hard to take seriously when read as a libretto, but I totally believe in the character of Manrico etc through the music. With Puccini I feel the emotions have been some how manufactured for effect, and I feel this with every one I have seen.

Always prepared to try again I am off to thew Girl of the Golden West on Saturday!

My failing I am sure as Puccini is perhaps the most performed opera composer of all time. Strange as I can listen to Massenet (although in small doses) without the same feeling. Does any one else have this reaction?