Madame Butterfly has returned to Opera Theatre of St. Louis. Is it a warhorse or a classic? It’s the sixth most-performed opera in the world, according to the website Operabase, which keeps track of these things. It’s also been lambasted as racist and sexist, and even now, there are serious efforts to re-think it, as shown in this New York Times article. It can’t be a warhorse to you if you haven’t seen it at least a couple of times, or didn’t grow up in a house where the music played frequently on whatever electronic, electric or manual device was around.
So what have we in this production? It’s early in the 20th century and the place is Nagasaki, Japan. A young American naval lieutenant named Pinkerton (Michael Brandenburg) is, in effect, renting himself a house and a bride, both on short-term leases, quite legal at the time in Japan. The bride is Butterfly, also called Cio-cio San (Rena Harms), a geisha who is, we’re told, 15. Pinkerton arrives at the house for the wedding accompanied by the American consul (Christopher Magiera), who tells him he overheard Butterfly at the consulate the day before, and warns him that she sounds like she’s head over heels for the young man, something that’s more than the usual business deal. She arrives with an entourage and her family for the wedding and reveals that she’s even converted to Christianity for Pinkerton. Furor ensues and Pinkerton sends everyone else home so he can have a wedding night.
That’s the first act, and while much of the music is marvelous, it’s hard to figure out from her behavior if Rapier’s Butterfly is serious about all this or if she’s playing Pinkerton to, in effect, get an American husband. There’s a great deal of eye rolling when she’s not facing him and exaggerated expression when she is, as though she’s just going through the motions. The general lack of chemistry between the two of them is a problem, and even their voices don’t seem to mesh well.
Come the second act, it’s three years later, and while Pinkerton’s been gone a long time, he left money behind to pay the rent on the house for her – which says maybe he isn’t really the unfeeling cad that some might call him. Their servant, Suzuki (Renee Rapier) has stayed with her, and there’s a new member in the household. Yes, there’s a little blond-haired boy named Sorrow (Sam Holder, who is quite impressive). No sign of his father, but Butterfly remains optimistic. Then Pinkerton appears, with his (legal American) wife. Tears ensue, but Rapier seems much easier with this act than the previous one.
As is common with OTSL, the secondary roles are filled with some excellent voices, and first among them is Magiera as the consul, who also displays good acting chops. Rapier’s Suzuki shows strongly as the stalwart maid, and the rejected suitor Prince Yamadori (Benjamin Taylor) is more than satisfying. Even the rather sleazy matchmaker/rental agent/pimp Goro does well in John McVeigh’s hands.
This translation of the show was done by Maggie Stearns and the late Colin Graham, both longtime pillars of OTSL with national reputations in their fields, and the traditional three acts are manged in two. Robin Guarino directed.
If this is your first experience at an opera, bear in mind what someone once explained to my husband when he interviewed her. “Just think of it as magic realism.” Works for me.
Madame Butterfly
through June 24
Opera Theatre of St. Louis
Loretto-Hilton Center
130 Edgar Rd., Webster Groves
314-961-0644