Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 22, 1995 TAG: 9509220056
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SETH WILLIAMSON SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Opera Roanoke's general director is ready to unveil a version of the Puccini classic that does away with traditional opera "extras" like sumptuous costumes and flashy scenery. Instead, this "Butterfly" - which opens a four-night run Saturday at Mill Mountain Theatre - will look more like Japanese Kabuki theater, with stripped-down sets, simple costumes, almost no props, and stylized acting designed to focus attention on the music itself. It'll be a far cry from La Scala.
Fields says the new production is designed to fix what he says is a problem "Madame Butterfly" has had since its opening night in 1904: the fact that the Japanese setting of the story is almost an afterthought.
"The Japanese aspect of it has so often been just a decorative element. It's a purely Italian opera that just happens to be set in Japan," said Fields.
"There's no set. I don't allow any naturalistic expression or interrelating between the characters - there'll be lots of pantomime. The whole thing is guided by a desire to bring the piece back into the Japanese garden, so to speak. We're stripping things down to their bare elements, so the music can speak emotionally. It's a radical departure from what people might expect."
The obvious question is: Why fix something that's not broken? Box office receipts consistently show that ``Butterfly'' is, after all, one of the most hugely appealing operas ever written.
But the popularity of this tale of a devoted teen-age Japanese geisha girl used and abandoned by a heartless American naval officer is only one side of the coin, said Fields.
"A recent Metropolitan Opera survey pointed out that `Madame Butterfly' was the favorite opera - but it also ranked highest on the least favorite scale as well."
In other words, if "Madame Butterfly" were a politician, it would be an Ollie North or a Jesse Jackson, combining high positives with high negatives.
The reason? According to Fields, the Japanese setting clashes with the luxuriant pasta-fed style of the music, which overflows with lush orchestration and ripe hit tunes.
"I think people are torn when they see this opera because they have to suspend their disbelief too much."
So Opera Roanoke audiences will witness a production in which extraneous movement and decoration have been pared away, a production that lasers in on the music itself and magnifies the effect of those stage effects that remain.
Will it work? Or will it just look like an opera with lousy sets and wooden actors? It's a gamble that Fields says he's willing to take.
In any event, the opera's story and music have proven so durably popular over nine decades that it's hard to imagine a production that could dim their appeal.
Giacomo Puccini set to music a libretto that was based on a 1900 stage play that was in turn taken from a short story by David Belasco, itself supposedly founded on true events. In early 20th-century Nagasaki, the 15-year-old geisha Cio-Cio San - daughter of a family with ruined fortunes - marries the American naval officer Pinkerton.
For Pinkerton the marriage is a farce, but young Madame Butterfly renounces everything for her husband, including her Buddhist religion. Pinkerton promptly deserts the girl, but Butterfly is faithful, insisting in one of Puccini's greatest arias that her husband will return to her "Un bel di," or "one fine day."
Pinkerton does return - but his "real" American wife Kate is with him, and his only interest in Cio-Cio San is to claim the son she bore him, aptly named "Trouble." Butterfly tells Kate that she will give up her son if only Pinkerton will come personally to fetch him.
When the cad finally works up the courage to face her, he discovers that Butterfly has redeemed her honor in the only way she knows, with her father's ceremonial sword. Even moderately good singers have no problem soaking hankies with a story like this.
New York City Opera veteran soprano Pamela Myers will sing the role of Cio-Cio San. Tenor Carl Tanner will sing Pinkerton, and mezzo Michelle Sarkesian will sing the role of Suzuki, Butterfly's servant. The American consul Sharpless will be sung by baritone Lawrence Craig. Barbara Silverstein of Pennsylvania Opera Theatre will conduct in place of Henry Holt, who is ill.
"Madame Butterfly" breaks the usual operatic mold by casting a tenor as the bad guy. Carl Tanner says the role of Pinkerton presents any tenor with a "conflict of interest": The better you sing, the more the audience will hate you.
"I've had friends who've done this role, gone on stage and sung their guts out, and when they go for the curtain call, they get booed," said Tanner. The New York City resident, who was educated at Shenandoah Conservatory and who is singing the role for the first time, says he's ready to be an operatic dirtbag for Roanoke audiences.
Tickets remain for all four performances (Saturday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday) with an 8 p.m. curtain time. At 7:15 p.m. before each performance, Fields will discuss the opera and his production in a free series called Director's Notes in the second-floor gallery of the Art Museum of Western Virginia at Center in the Square.
Madame Butterfly: An Opera Roanoke production opening Saturday at Mill Mountain Theatre. Director's Notes at 7:15 p.m., performances at 8. $22-$28. 982-2742.
by CNB