MADAMA BUTTERFLY by Giacomo Puccini (Canadian Opera Company). At the Four Seasons Centre (145 Queen West). To October 31. $12-$339. 416-363-8231. See listings. Rating: NNN
Puccini’s opera Madama Butterfly should pierce the emotions, but something is missing in the Canadian Opera Company’s current revival. On opening night, there were many dry eyes in the house – including mine. And I’m usually a blubbering mess during the closing scenes.
Things don’t start off well, with sluggish conducting in the overture and throughout the first act by Patrick Lange. How I wish the COC’s Johannes Debus were at the podium. He’d have got the orchestra to bring out the precise details and rich harmonies in Puccini’s score, generating momentum in an act that can too often seem like a series of entrances and exits.
He’s not given much help by his two leads, however. Patricia Racette’s Butterfly – the young Japanese woman who gives up her family to marry Pinkerton (Stefano Secco), a cad of a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy – was obviously in poor voice, her top notes approaching screechy. Tenor Secco, who alternates in the role with Andrea Care (as Racette does with Kelly Kaduce), has a nice even tone but seems more interested in belting out his passions to the audience than connecting with anyone onstage.
The second half is much stronger. Racette is a fine actor, and she’s obviously thought a lot about this character. Her Un Bel Di paints a visual and dramatic portrait in a few minutes, and she has great rapport with her sturdy, sensible servant, Suzuki (Elizabeth DeShong, who’s got a characterful, full mezzo) and Consul Sharpless (Dwayne Croft). Her Butterfly interacts differently with each of them – and with marriage broker Goro (Julius Ahn) and prospective second husband Yamadori (Clarence Frazer) – according to their status.
It’s in the second half, too, that Brian Macdonald’s acclaimed production gains power. Susan Benson’s set, with wooden platforms and movable screens, evokes Butterfly’s increasing isolation, and the moving musical entr’acte between acts two and three is played with Butterfly patiently awaiting Pinkerton’s return, Michael Whitfield’s lighting subtly changing from evening to sunrise. It’s haunting.
There’s also fine work by the COC chorus. Their angry curses in act one are so distinctive, you can almost hear them in the echo in the second half, and their hushed, gentle humming chorus is sublime.
But you know something’s not right when you’re looking forward to hearing the chorus and not the leads.
See review of the alternate Madama Butterfly cast.
