Madam Butterfly, Mid Wales Opera, Theatr Hafren, Newton, review
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Madam Butterfly, Mid Wales Opera, Theatr Hafren, Newton, reviewMid-Wales Opera's version of Puccini's Madam Butterfly bravely opts for a touch of kitchen-sink realism.
By Hugo Shirley 12:50PM BST 12 Sep 2011  Comment
After last year’s highly-praised Falstaff, Mid Wales Opera now turn their hand to Puccini’s Madam Butterfly, which is presented at Newtown’s Theatr Hafren before heading off on a three-month tour. It’s another impressive team achievement, and a wonderful example of how to employ modest resources in this most immodest art form. Stephen Barlow’s clever new production also manages to put a refreshing spin on Puccini’s classic. Sung in Amanda Holden’s translation and with smart designs by Yannis Thavoris, it sets out to “update and aesthetically streamline”. But it also bravely opts for a touch of kitchen-sink realism, creating a post-World War II Japan where lotus blossoms are plastic, their scent squirted from an aerosol. The green tiles and patterned wallpaper of Butterfly’s house evoke something of the dingy sixties prefab. Her dreaming becomes less romantic than aggressively aspirational: she sips from a coke bottle, watches American sitcoms and her house, after the interval, sits beneath a Pan-Am ad pointing to the longed-for land. By the time she puts on a ceremonial robe before Pinkerton’s return, you’d be forgiven for forgetting we were in Japan at all. We’re spared the spectacle of female singers unconvincingly made up as Japanese dolls, then, and the endlessly nodding supernumeraries of more traditional productions. But it’s a gamble which I’m not sure entirely works. The clichéd props we can do without, but surely Butterfly’s own character grows from Puccini’s vision of an idealised Orient, however outdated it might be. Meeta Raval — a recent Cardiff Singer of the World finalist — is fearless as Cio-Cio San, sailing through the demands of the role with mightily impressive security. But, unusually feisty and fiery, she seems more Tosca than Butterfly, right up to a theatrically delayed suicide. She’s not the type to suffer in silence or, more importantly, to tug at the heart strings. Seán Ruane makes a convincingly cock-sure Pinkerton, somewhat unnecessarily recast as a pilot, and is vocally secure, if occasionally unwieldy. Young Amy J Payne, freshly graduated from the Guildhall, turns in a soulful, strongly sung Suzuki. Wyn Pencarreg is a wise Sharpless, Stuart Haycock wonderfully slimy as Goro. MWO’s musical director, Nicholas Cleobury, led a tight, beautifully paced account of the pared-down score. And while the 11-piece band could do a pretty decent impression of Puccini’s orchestra, it seemed appropriate for Barlow’s conception not to be offered the luxurious sweep of the full orchestra. |