Posts Tagged ‘Dean Casella Reviews Dallas Opera Madame Butterfly Winspear Opera House’

Madama Butterfly, by Giacomo Puccini
The Dallas Opera, Winspear Opera House, 7, 9, 12, 15, 20, 23 May 2010
Review by Dean Cassella

It is wonderfully fitting that The Dallas Opera has completed its landmark first season at the Winspear Opera House with the lyric beauty and high tragedy of one of Puccini’s most loved operas. After starting the season with Italian opera’s godfather (Giuseppe Verdi with Otello) we have made our way through opera buffa (Così Fan Tutte and Don Pasquale), and a world premiere (Moby Dick). Butterfly, in a sense, brings us back full circle to opera’s roots, albeit in an early twentieth-century manifestation.

Butterfly is, to a large degree, a vehicle for prima donnas to strut their stuff. Romanian soprano Adina Nitescu, last seen at TDO as Elisabetta in 2006’s Maria Stuarda, delivers a marvelous interpretation of Cio-Cio San, the hapless Japanese teen, who marries Pinkerton, an American sailor who does not regard the marriage as genuinely binding. The role demands a fragile sweetness and meek demeanor that is at odds with the sheer vocal power that is necessary to pull it off successfully. Nitescu’s voice is well-suited to the role, and her rendition of ‘Un bel di vedremo’ (One fine day we shall see), one of the best loved aria’s in the opera repertoire, left nothing to be desired.

American tenor Brandon Javanovich is a natural for the role of Pinkerton, an American sailor who thoughtlessly isolates Cio-Cio San from her own people, only unknowingly to leave her pregnant for three years, while he marries another American. Javanovich, being a tall, dashing American, is naturally adept at capturing all of the pointed mannerisms of an American serviceman. His voice is, if anything, a perfect match for Nitescu, both in timbre and body. For me, the highlight of the performance was their pair’s stunning rendition of ‘Viene la sera’ (The evening comes), the love duet that concludes Act I. The two have an unmistakable chemistry, and their well-matched, powerful voices overwhelm the listener with a sense of bliss mixed with foreboding doom.

Notable in the supporting cast was Mezzo-Soprano Maria Zifchak, whose interpretation of the role of Suzuki, Cio-Cio San’s maid, beautifully complements Nitescu’s title role. One of the highlights of the production is the pair’s duet ‘Scuoti quella fronda di ciliegio’ (Shake that petal of the cherry tree), wherein the two prepare for Pinkerton’s putative return home.

The sets of designer Michael Yeargan are relatively simple but effective. The first is a straightforward recreation of an American consulate office, which could easily have been inspired by period photos. The other sets tend toward the abstract, with hints of Japanese styling, a notable exception being a large statue of the Buddha, which makes a brief appearance when the Bonze, Cio-Cio San’s priest uncle, makes a brief appearance to chastise her for abandoning her ancestral religion for that of her new husband. Cio-Cio San’s suicide scene brings with it a huge silk red curtain that overwhelms the senses at the coup de grace.

As always, Graeme Jenkin’s conducting is superb, and he manages to generate a lot of power from the orchestra, without overwhelming the singers.

All in all, this production is not to be missed, and would make an excellent introduction to opera for a neophyte. So grab a friend or loved one, and be sure to bring along a handkerchief!