BaL 23.03.24 - Puccini: Madame Butterfly

[Retune]

Just putting in another plug for this remarkable Madama Butterfly I saw in rehearsal at Covent Garden this week. A five star review on the Times . Unfortunately I couldn’t see any seats above balcony level on sale . It is however being cinema screened on the 26th March

I thought you would be interested in this story from The Times:
Asmik Grigorian’s Madama Butterfly is a poleaxing five-star triumph.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/e...ae868e004f337e 28bf3b

I was lucky to get hold of a ticket in the amphitheatre this Tuesday. The praise of Asmik Grigorian was more than deserved, a really special performance.

Just ordered a £5 copy of Callas/Karajan, which I imagine will not 'win' this week but caught me in a way that others I previewed didn't.

Incidentally, I went to Covent Garden with only a dim memory of the plot (having seen it at WNO as a child) and avoided reading the detailed synopsis to experience it fresh. I hadn't realised how thoroughly despicable Pinkerton is, warned by Sharpless in advance that Cio-Cio-San regards this as a real marriage and will be destroyed if Pinkerton does not, he casually exploits her youth and inexperience (the intake of breath in my section of the audience when her age was mentioned was noticeable), his abandonment and betrayal are entirely premeditated, the false hope he leaves her with particularly cynical, his intention to marry in the US there from the start. And when he returns, though he knows her to be ostracised and without resources, all he can offer is to take away her child. There are plenty of villains in Opera, some of them murderers, but I'm not sure there is a less sympathetic character than Pinkerton the shameful sex tourist.

[Ein Heldenleben]

I was lucky to get hold of a ticket in the amphitheatre this Tuesday. The praise of Asmik Grigorian was more than deserved, a really special performance.

Just ordered a £5 copy of Callas/Karajan, which I imagine will not 'win' this week but caught me in a way that others I previewed didn't.

Incidentally, I went to Covent Garden with only a dim memory of the plot (having seen it at WNO as a child) and avoided reading the detailed synopsis to experience it fresh. I hadn't realised how thoroughly despicable Pinkerton is, warned by Sharpless in advance that Cio-Cio-San regards this as a real marriage and will be destroyed if Pinkerton does not, he casually exploits her youth and inexperience (the intake of breath in my section of the audience when her age was mentioned was noticeable), his abandonment and betrayal are entirely premeditated, the false hope he leaves her with particularly cynical, his intention to marry in the US there from the start. And when he returns, though he knows her to be ostracised and without resources, all he can offer is to take away her child. There are plenty of villains in Opera, some of them murderers, but I'm not sure there is a less sympathetic character than Pinkerton the shameful sex tourist.

Glad you enjoyed it .

Japan recently raised the age of consent from 13 to 16. Up until 2023 Pinkertons relationship with 15 year old CIO-CIO San would have been perfectly legal. I’m not sure that Pinkerton is a sex tourist though. When he sings the love duet I think he means it as much as people ever mean love declarations.In other words I don’t think he’s using it just as a seduction technique . It’s more that he knows a Japanese bride will be unacceptable in the States. And sailors have bit of that a girl in every port attitude I believe . I don’t think he’s a racist though - otherwise why would he adopt the boy?
The person I find really strange is Kate . What is she playing at ?

[Maclintick]

Not really much of a Puccini buff, apart from Bohème, Turandot, Il Trittico, & La Rondine, but I gave the only version of Madame Butterfly in my meagre collection a spin last night (Tebaldi/ Bergonzi/Serafin) & was completely wowed. Outstandingly well-recorded for its date (1958) by Roy G. Wallace - inventor of the famous Decca tree – The voices in particular have an immediacy and bloom which could hardly be bettered today.

[Master Jacques]

Glad you enjoyed it .

Japan recently raised the age of consent from 13 to 16. Up until 2023 Pinkertons relationship with 15 year old CIO-CIO San would have been perfectly legal. I’m not sure that Pinkerton is a sex tourist though. When he sings the love duet I think he means it as much as people ever mean love declarations.In other words I don’t think he’s using it just as a seduction technique . It’s more that he knows a Japanese bride will be unacceptable in the States. And sailors have bit of that a girl in every port attitude I believe . I don’t think he’s a racist though - otherwise why would he adopt the boy?
The person I find really strange is Kate . What is she playing at ?

Spot on: the Offended of Tunbridge Wells attitude to "under age sex" in this opera is ignorant and unhistorical. And Pinkerton is not a racist, just an imperialist master.

The characterisation of Kate is (I think) a masterstroke of the librettists. She is embarrassed to be there, dourly supportive of her now-guilty husband, and emotionally sensitive about the situation. Thus she tries to say and do as little as possible, out of respect to Butterfly. I remember one production (at ENO decades ago) where the role was so well acted - conveying all these shades of emotion - that she rather stole the show!

[Retune]

Although Sharpless seems to take a dim view of a girl being exploited at an age when he implies she should still be playing with toys, Pinkerton would still have been an utter bastard if Butterfly had been 16 or older when he 'married' her. This would remain a ruthlessly exploitative relationship, founded on deliberate deceit, and I don't think that's a revisionist view of the story. We know exactly what Pinkerton is going to do (discard her and take an American bride) because he tells us in advance, but Cio-Cio-San has no inkling of this. Instead, she is cruelly left hanging with the story about him returning when the robins nest, a commitment he obviously has no intention of honouring and has made only to make his departure easier (on himself, not her). Should she then be grateful that Mr and Mrs Pinkerton want to take away her son to a 'better life'? The only reason she is living in poverty is because Pinkerton has casually left her destitute in a society where she is now an outcast. He may be genuinely infatuated when he sings so sweetly to her in Act 1, but (with everything he has said before and everything he does after) I'm not convinced it goes beyond that. In the ROH production Kate, who isn't given much time on stage, comes across as a bit of a cipher, but Cio-Cio-San doesn't blame her for the situation (which is, after all, not her fault).

[Ein Heldenleben]

Although Sharpless seems to take a dim view of a girl being exploited at an age when he implies she should still be playing with toys, Pinkerton would still have been an utter bastard if Butterfly had been 16 or older when he 'married' her. This would remain a ruthlessly exploitative relationship, founded on deliberate deceit, and I don't think that's a revisionist view of the story. We know exactly what Pinkerton is going to do (discard her and take an American bride) because he tells us in advance, but Cio-Cio-San has no inkling of this. Instead, she is cruelly left hanging with the story about him returning when the robins nest, a commitment he obviously has no intention of honouring and has made only to make his departure easier (on himself, not her). Should she then be grateful that Mr and Mrs Pinkerton want to take away her son to a 'better life'? The only reason she is living in poverty is because Pinkerton has casually left her destitute in a society where she is now an outcast. He may be genuinely infatuated when he sings so sweetly to her in Act 1, but (with everything he has said before and everything he does after) I'm not convinced it goes beyond that. In the ROH production Kate, who isn't given much time on stage, comes across as a bit of a cipher, but Cio-Cio-San doesn't blame her for the situation (which is, after all, not her fault).

Worth studying the words of that love duet in some detail. Unfortunately the Ricordi translation is a travesty . So with my poor Italian - Pinkerton makes that extraordinary remark of impaling a butterfly on a pin. Butterfly explains how love works in her culture which Pinkerton sidesteps . Pinkerton says “be mine “ endlessly but never says I love you. She is a possession - “darkness is falling “ and perhaps metaphorically also . I’m beginning to wonder whether it should be renamed the seduction duet.

[Pulcinella]

Overall recommendation:

Puccini: Madama Butterfly

Angela Gheorghiu (Butterfly), Jonas Kaufmann (Pinkerton), Enkelejda Shkosa (Suzuki), Fabio Capitanucci (Sharpless), Gregory Bonfatti (Goro) & Raymond Aceto (Bonzo)

Orchestra e Coro dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Antonio Pappano

• Release Date: 2nd Mar 2009
• Catalogue No: 4562152
• Label: Warner Classics
• Length: 2 hours 14 minutes

[Ein Heldenleben]

Todays excellent BAL clips.

Pappano / Georghiu
10.34 Pinkerton Act one - Kaufman - (nice singing bit over suave maybe EH)
10.40 Act One Butterfly Entrance lovely NS points out excellent orchestra shading
10.59 Un Bel Di
11.05 Flower duet
11.11 WINNER because of Pappano’s sense of theatre
11.12 opera close

Sinopoli / Freni
10.54 Act Two Excerpt Butterfly abandoned . NS doesn’t like SinopolI’s glacial tempi- out

Karajan / Freni
10.32 Act one opening
10.51 End Act One love duet with Pavarotti
11.08 Act 3 dawn chorus with good bird fx
In the final two with Pappano


Karajan/ Callas
10.39 Act one Butterfly entrance . Glorious oh to have heard it live
10.49 Act One love duet Dolce Notte with the inestimable Gedda - this is lovely . (EH Spending a bit too much time in tears…pull yourself together man.)
11.01 - Act 2 Callas in heart breaking moment even her parlando beats most into a cocked hat

(This is NS’s historic choice and who would disagree ?)


Barbirolli / Scotto
10.43 Act one Love Duet opening - nothing need be said WONDERFUL
1109 Act 3 sharpless / Pinkerton.


Serafin / Tebaldi
10.45 act one love duet picking up from where Scotto ended (with Bergonzi )
Cut out of BAL at 1103


Kempe / De Los Angeles/live at Covent Garden
10.31 Act One opening
10.48 Act One love duet continues “Dolce Notte ..”
10.57 Un Bel Di - (the purity of VDeLA’s voice EH)
NS Sadly cut out for sound reasons but worth listening to (EH hear hear)


Rome Opera DeFabritis
10.36 Gigli singing same early Act One passage as Kaufman - what a singer oh my days

Chailly original version of opera on DVD also recommended

[RobP]

Although Sharpless seems to take a dim view of a girl being exploited at an age when he implies she should still be playing with toys, Pinkerton would still have been an utter bastard if Butterfly had been 16 or older when he 'married' her. This would remain a ruthlessly exploitative relationship, founded on deliberate deceit, and I don't think that's a revisionist view of the story. We know exactly what Pinkerton is going to do (discard her and take an American bride) because he tells us in advance, but Cio-Cio-San has no inkling of this. Instead, she is cruelly left hanging with the story about him returning when the robins nest, a commitment he obviously has no intention of honouring and has made only to make his departure easier (on himself, not her). Should she then be grateful that Mr and Mrs Pinkerton want to take away her son to a 'better life'? The only reason she is living in poverty is because Pinkerton has casually left her destitute in a society where she is now an outcast. He may be genuinely infatuated when he sings so sweetly to her in Act 1, but (with everything he has said before and everything he does after) I'm not convinced it goes beyond that. In the ROH production Kate, who isn't given much time on stage, comes across as a bit of a cipher, but Cio-Cio-San doesn't blame her for the situation (which is, after all, not her fault).

Absolutely, the guy used her as a child sex toy and then abandoned her. There is no defence.

[Belgrove]

This was an exemplary BAL. The clips and comparisons were selected to make telling and insightful points. An argument was constructed that gave us good reasons for arriving at the final choices, for which thanks to makropulos.

[Master Jacques]

This was an exemplary BAL. The clips and comparisons were selected to make telling and insightful points. An argument was constructed that gave us good reasons for arriving at the final choices, for which thanks to makropulos.

Quite so. Although personally I wouldn't go along with those final recommendations, that's not relevant. I was - to take one example - extremely glad to be introduced to the De Los Ángeles/Lanigan/Kempe extracts from Covent Garden, which were new to me and well worth hearing. A job well done.

[silvestrione]

This was an exemplary BAL. The clips and comparisons were selected to make telling and insightful points. An argument was constructed that gave us good reasons for arriving at the final choices, for which thanks to makropulos.

I agree. I don't listen to opera much (prefer to go to see it), but what a range of exciting voices we heard, and what a compelling drama the opera was made out to be (I have never seen it). And the playing of the Vienna Phil in the Karajan excerpts! Stunning...

[Ein Heldenleben]

Quite so. Although personally I wouldn't go along with those final recommendations, that's not relevant. I was - to take one example - extremely glad to be introduced to the De Los Ángeles/Lanigan/Kempe extracts from Covent Garden, which were new to me and well worth hearing. A job well done.

Totally agree, One other thing having produced a clip list a week ago the balance between clip length and (heavily noted and pre prepped ) speech was exemplary. If Makrupulos also selected the clips , did the durations plus ins and outs I can only say lucky producer. Were I the latter a pint at the Horse and Groom would definitely be on offer.

[gradus]

It was wholly engaging, an excellent example of how it should be done.

[Darloboy]

Apologies, I'm playing catchup with previous BaL recommendations at the moment...

Alan Blyth (Feb 1979): Barbirolli + Karajan/Callas as mid-price choice
John Steane (March 1989): Karajan/Callas + Karajan/Freni also recommended
Rodney Milnes (Sep 04): Serafin/Tebaldi