Opera Review: MADAME BUTTERFLY (LA Opera)

TAKE. CUT. PRINT.
A BUTTERFLY IN A 1930 MOVIE STUDIO ENTHRALLS

Stage and cinema have merged at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion for what may be the most glorious and cogent version of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly you will ever see. Certainly, this is the most inspiring and satisfying version of this oft-produced opera that I have ever seen. Better, the packed house last night for this auspicious opening of LA Opera‘s new season was so mesmerized that applause was often suspended for respectful, awed silence.

Karah Son

The main reason for this is director Mario Gas, whose production from Teatro Real, Madrid, has Butterfly being performed for the cameras on a 1930s film set. With actual operating cranes holding those old Bell & Howell-type cameras (hollowed out with actual video cameras inside), a film crew shoots the movie off to the sides as a team of off-camera workers with specific personalities perform jobs like prop man, boom operator, and a harried cigarette-smoking wardrobe supervisor.

Karah Son and Jonathan Tetelman

We are watching a film being made and are patrons at a movie theater at the same time. The video is projected in black and white on the screen above the stage, just above the startlingly fresh and accessible supertitle translations by David Anglin. This means, as we gaze up to read Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica‘s well-researched libretto, we don’t miss the action onstage, which is completely choreographed by Stage Director Brenna Corner so that we witness some long shots which would make Max Ophüls proud. Even the chorus is situated in staggered formations, which not only add depth on stage but would have added dimension in film.

Karah Son and Jonathan Tetelman

Jonathan Tetelman and Karah Son

Giacomo Puccini’s Madame Butterfly (1904) is another one of those incredibly popular operas, like Mozart’s Don Giovanni, that is rendered increasingly difficult and problematic by the passage of time. Cio-Cio-San, the titular Madame Butterfly, has often been seen as a strong, independent, even heroic, woman. And in some respects she is. But Cio-Cio-San is also a victim, both of a bigamist husband, and of a law that recognizes the rights of fathers over those of mothers. Madame Butterfly’s suicidal ending remains tragic, despite the sheen of honor provided by the dagger Cio-Cio-San’s father used for the same purpose.

Karah Son

This narrative context through the prism of a ’30s film actually dissipates those issues. On a rotating set of an art deco-informed Japanese house with sliding walls, the tragic tale of a teenage woman desperate to escape her bad luck situation becomes a melodrama, and thus more relatable. Mr. Gas manages to make a disturbing story sublime. And that is no small achievement.

Jonathan Tetelman as Pinkerton and Michael Sumuel as Sharpless

It’s 1904. US naval officer Lt. Pinkerton (Jonathan Tetelman) is seeing the world in the name of war and pleasure. When ashore in Nagasaki, Japan, he seeks the best and fairest woman and is offered Cio-Cio-San (Karah Son). Transfixed by her exotic beauty, Pinkerton marries her on sight. The fifteen-year-old erstwhile-geisha is enthralled by his American ways, and falls wholeheartedly in love with him, even as her family renounces her. However the dastardly Pinkerton is keenly anticipating the future when he will marry “a real wife, a wife from America.” In contrast to Cio-Cio-San’s devotion to her American husband is Pinkerton’s callous commitment to his Japanese wife. He first discusses her like a piece of property with the American consul Sharpless (Michael Sumuel) and the matchmaker Goro (Rodell Aure Rosel). Then he abandons her for three years, only to return with an American wife (Gabrielle Turgeon) and takes away the son (Ean Sun) he had with Cio-Cio-San.

Karah Son as Cio-Cio-San and Enzo Ma as Cio-Cio-San's Child

While Pinkerton’s intentions are more crystal clear than ever, Tetelman somehow doesn’t come off as callous. Even as Sharpless warns him that no good can come of this, Tetelman — who positively towers over the entire cast — comes off charming, loving and well-intentioned. He even appears heroic ordering Cio-cio-San’s disapproving uncle (Wei Wu), a leader in the Buddhist faith (a Bonze) and his clan from the house. And when Pinkerton begins flipping poppets that contain the souls of Butterfly’s ancestors (and actually dropping one), he comes off like a joking Yankee who means no harm whatsoever. He’s just living within the context of the system into which he was born. And yet we never forget that this man is a dastard. In addition, Tetelman — the handsome, powerful, colorful, emotional Chilean-American — offers a tenor that is lovely, Italianate, open, free and quite muscular in the extreme upper registers — great for Puccini. (He played Pinkerton at The Met earlier this year.)

Jonathan Tetelman

Every single performer is powerful and well-cast — how often can you say that in operas, the singers of which are booked long before rehearsals commence? Each actor is lyric and loud, even in the small roles. Hyungjin Son as the wealthy suitor Prince Yamadori, Wei Wu as the Bonze, Ryan Wolfe as the Official Registrar, and Gabrielle Turgeon as Pinkerton’s new wife, Kate, command the stage for the short time they appear. Instead of being gimmicky and obnoxious, Rodell Aure Rosel makes the marriage broker Goro the comic relief, unfurling the photo-fan of the many women he has to sell, um, broker.

Rodell Aure Rosel as Goro, Karah Son and Hyungjin Son as Prince Yamadori

Rodell Aure Rosel as Goro

South Korean soprano Karah Son has the acting and vocal skills to make Cio-Cio-San an admirable and magnetic heroine, as she has proved many times before (she has done the role over 300 times). The beautiful Ms. Son endows her role with both youthfulness and maturity as her gloriously strong voice fills the house. And it is that magisterial artistry that keeps us rapt throughout the long second half. Her gorgeously sung aria “Un bel di vedremo” and the tender farewell to her son are standouts. Even better, in the second act, the innocent naif turns into a femme fatale-type with bobbed hair and a casual ditsy-print V-neck midi dress. At one point, she walks furiously towards her servant and best friend Suzuki with back hunched and open-handed claws. It’s as if she knows she’s been scammed and her sanity is slipping away.

Karah Son and Hyona Kim

Hyona Kim is a wonder as Suzuki. Her physical stance and facial expressions make the handmaid most empathetic. Her ecstatic happiness alongside Cio-Cio San to her rage at discovering Goro gossiping how an “illegitimate” boy is treated in America shows a talented performer who can also act with her voice, which is full, luscious and resonant. Her emotional journey is a roller-coaster and it’s the first time I really felt Suzuki’s stake in all this.

Hyona Kim as Suzuki and Michael Sumuel as Sharpless

The stunning set by Ezio Frigerio not only includes the set of the house, with the watshitsu in front and a entryway in back, but the entire stage is a movie studio. The exquisite details include the shellacked floors (not unlike Fred and Ginger movies), art nouveau glass windows, and wisteria flowers dangling from the roof through which lighting designer Vinicio Cheli creates dappled effects. Above the set, an apparatus — the kind that was used for fake snow (made of bleached cornflakes and even asbestos back in the day) — has blossoms wafting down when Butterfly orders Suzuki to prepare the house to welcome back Pinkerton. Upstage, a gigantic painted backdrop of the ocean looms on a pulley system.

Karah Son

Costume designer Franca Squarciapino really has some fun. Some of the men on the crew are authentically clothed in 30s knickerbockers, argyle socks, vests, ties and stylish herringbone pattern Newsboy Caps. Butterfly’s female entourage are in black-and-white kimonos in highly artistic patterns, while Butterfly’s outfit is not a traditional wedding dress but a red-and white (shades of blood to come?) bejeweled kimono, studded with the kind of gems that pop out from silver nitrate prints.

Karah Son (in red) and Rodell Aure Rosel (in glasses)

This smashing production also informs James Conlon‘s conducting. He overemphasizes dramatic passages, increasing the drama as if it were scored for film. And remarkably, the orchestra’s acoustics are astoundingly clear, a grand achievement in a hall that usually has the music feel more like background.

Jonathan Tetelman as Pinkerton and Karah Son as Cio-Cio-San

I’ll leave you with this. When Butterfly goes off to sleep awaiting Pinkerton’s return, a long musical passage that introduces Act III is used as a dream sequence in which Butterfly imagines a contrite Pinkerton returning to take her and their boy to America: It is not just cinematic, it’s heartbreaking — and just another jewel in the crown of this production.

 Jonathan Tetelman

photos by Cory Weaver / LA Opera

Gabrielle Turgeon as Kate Pinkerton

Madame Butterfly
LA Opera
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 North Grand Ave.
remaining performances:
September 26, 2024, at 2pm
September 29, 2024, at 2pm
October 5, 2024, at 7:30pm
October 9, 2024, at 7:30pm
October 13, 2024, at 2pm
for tickets, call 213. 972.8001 or visit LA Opera