Madam Butterfly - WA Opera

Madam Butterfly WA Opera His Majesty’s Theatre, Perth 30 March 2006 Butterfly, is one of, if not the, most popular operas in the repertoire, and this production by the WA Opera and Andrew Sinclair is a good example why. I came out of the performance with one or two major qualms, but still enjoyed the whole experience. In a lesser production these qualms may have tainted my entire perception of the night, but the strength of the piece, and of Andrew Sinclair’s production, outweighed any problems with the performance. This is the third time the WA Opera have used this production (previously in 1993 & 1999) and it holds up well. Kenneth Rowell’s set is simply stunning. Eschewing attempts at authentic Japanese he has, instead, filtered his designs through the Impressionists. As he says, the opera is “essentially a European’s view of Japan”. His design basically consists of a (revolving) two-storey house stage right, and the suggestion of a pond and stream stage left, over which runs a walkway and a bridge. The back and sides of the stage are decorated with drops that look as though they are Monet watercolours. At various times watercolour screens descend from the flies to draw the action in to the front of the stage, and to suggest the cutting off of the outside world that intimate moments bring. I have seen this same production at the Victorian Arts Centre, a much wider stage, and the house was only single-storey but twice the size. Maybe it was because I was used to the Perth version of the set, but I have always thought this two-storey house worked better. At the start of the second act the stage was hidden by a scrim on which were painted diagonal lines. As the lights came up we realised that these lines had varying degrees of transparency/translucency giving the wonderful illusion of light being filtered through trees. The highlight of this production is undoubtedly the playing of the WASO, led by Joseph Colaneri, previously Acting Music Director at the New York City Opera, and on the conducting roster at the Met. Under Maestro Colaneri the WASO give one of their tightest, most assured pit performances in many years. Bravi, Bravi Tutti! Anne Williams-King here makes her Australian debut as Cio-Cio-San. She has a disconcertingly dark soprano voice, perhaps too dark for Butterfly. According to her bio she specialises in roles like Salome and Tosca, roles where her colour would be much better utilised. She played the role like a fidgety teenager, now Butterfly is a teenager, but she is also a professional geisha, and I don’t think you would describe her as fidgety. There seemed to be very little grace to Williams-King’s portrayal, in fact she reminded me more of Yum Yum from the Mikado (speaking of which, I only just noticed that the tune to Yamadori’s entrance is the same as “Miya sama” from Mikado, obviously they were drawn from the same Japanese source). This was the big let down for me. Sarah-Janet Dougiamas as Suzuki also seemed to be channelling one of the “Little Maids from School” but here her portrayal was a lot more successful. There is a tendency to play Suzuki very two-dimensionally as the loyal servant, but Dougiamas gave us a real person on stage, not just a cypher. Half way through the first act, Pinkerton tells Sharpless, the American Consul, about his plans to have a real marriage back in the States with a real American wife. At this point in the production, Dougiamas was placed in the upper room of the house, where she could easily hear what was being said below her, I don’t know whether I have ever seen this done before, or whether I only noticed it this time, but it is a telling point in the development of Suzuki, and Dougiamas plays it brilliantly. As Pinkerton, Rosario La Spina swoops and glides over his notes like the American Eagle he portrays. At first this troubled me, but he soon convinced me totally. I do not know whether this is his usual style (I missed him in last year’s La Traviata) but it actually suits this role. For once he sounded less like an Italian pretending to be an American, and actually sounded LIKE an American (if that makes sense). His bear-like presence dominated the stage whenever he was on it, as Pinkerton should. Michael Lewis’ Sharpless was assured, and lent some gravitas to the scenes he was in. His high point would have to be the scene where he tries to read Pinkerton’s letter to Butterfly, and his frustration at Pinkerton for putting him in this mess, and at Butterfly for not understanding him, was palpable. Of the minor characters, the highlight would be Justin Friend’s Goro (the marriage-broker). Not deliberately, but because of the shape of his face, Friend actually looked like the WWII caricatures of Hirohito. Even after three outings there is nothing wrong with this production, and I look forward to seeing it again when it is due for revival around 2013. But before then, it is way too long since we had a Tosca, please!