
DATE: Thursday, October 2, 1997             TAG: 9710020064

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY CRAIG SHAPIRO, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  145 lines

"MADAME" POPULARITY "BUTTERFLY'S" TIMELESS ROMANCE LENDS ITSELF TO MODERN ADAPTATIONS

THE POSTER enchants, beckons.

Printed in shades of beige, blue and green, bordered by maroon butterflies, it touts the 1977-78 season of the Virginia Opera Association - Mozart's ``Cosi Fan Tutte,'' Thea Musgrave's ``Mary, Queen of Scots'' and the opening production, Giacomo Puccini's ``Madame Butterfly.''

Butterfly also beckons. In one delicate hand she holds a cricket box; in the other, a turquoise and gold fan decorated with a purple iris. Her kimono is gray, gold and deep red. She glances over her shoulder.

Friday night, 20 years after that first ``Butterfly,'' Virginia Opera opens the season with its fourth production of the masterwork. As he discusses it, general director Peter Mark gazes often at the poster in his Harrison Opera House office.

``Most of the masterworks of the Italian repertoire are the kind of vehicles where you never, as an artist, get to feel where what (you) have done is definitive,'' Mark said last week. ``In effect, every time you pick up this score and rehearse it, let alone perform it, you understand more.

``The greatness of the work lies directly in the fact that there's so much more to open up in it all the time. I don't know any work that lives up to the definition of `masterwork' as magnificently as `Butterfly.' It's really a superb and perfect opera.''

Mark is in no way alone in his enthusiasm. This year, nearly three dozen productions are being mounted around the world.

``Madame Butterfly'' has had considerable influence outside opera houses, too. The lavish musical ``Miss Saigon'' and the intimate drama ``M. Butterfly'' take their leads, albeit loosely, from Puccini.

Local audiences will get to contrast and compare when the Little Theatre of Virginia Beach stages ``M. Butterfly'' in January and the touring production of ``Miss Saigon'' arrives at Norfolk's Chrysler Hall in March.

It is the very nature of ``Madame Butterfly's'' story - the doomed romance between the naive geisha Cio-Cio-San (Butterfly) and Lt. Pinkerton - that not only accounts for its wide appeal but also lends itself to adaptation, Mark said.

``I think you have some very potent material and themes when you examine young love and betrayal of trust,'' he said. ``It's something that resonates with every person of every age. We all build trust with people to survive (but) are secretly fearful. . . . It's hard to trust when you see betrayal of trust. That's what's so emotionally potent about this story.''

Cio-Cio-San, just 15, and Pinkerton are everyday people - a geisha and a sailor - not epic, historical figures, which makes it easier for audiences, especially young adults, to buy in, Mark added.

Then there's the setting, turn-of-the-century Japan.

``There's an excitement about coming into contact with something you're not familiar with or someone from a different culture,'' Mark said. ``Puccini, without having been to Asia, though certainly having studied it, seems to have a tremendous appreciation for the refinement and discipline and understatement of the Asian personality, (which) could lead to misinterpretations by Westerners.''

``We're talking about a real multiracial relationship before it became fashionable, so in many ways it's ahead of its time. These are endlessly fascinating themes.''

First performed at La Scala on Feb. 17, 1904, ``Madame Butterfly'' itself is an adaptation. It was based on a play by David Belasco that in turn was based on a novella by John Luther Long.

Puccini saw the play during its first European tour.

``We'll just have to wait 100 years to see if `Miss Saigon' survives and has the appeal that `Butterfly' does,'' Mark said, laughing. ``We have lost sight of the novella . . . and the play is not in the repertoire at all. This is the source. It gives us the full round-trip.''

Alain Boubil and Claude-Michel Schonberg didn't have ``Madame Butterfly'' in mind when they wrote ``Miss Saigon.''

Instead, the Frenchmen were inspired by a photograph - children of Vietnamese women and American servicemen, outcasts called Buo Doi (Dust of Life), being taken from their mothers to be raised in the United States.

``Clearly, the anguish on their faces was terribly moving to the authors,'' said Peter Lawrence, ``Miss Saigon's'' associate director/executive producer.

But the authors never discouraged comparisons with ``Butterfly,'' Lawrence said. Both works are set in a distant time and place, and they explore the West's notions of the East.

``It's a useful comparison for the audience, a way of providing entrance,'' he said from New York. ``In our story, Kim is a bit more steely-eyed and practical and willing to take action to alter the outcome. Where Pinkerton is quite callous, Chris in our story has no wish to abandon Kim.''

There is one other thing the opera and musical share. They evolve with each production.

``The idea is to keep figuring out what it means now,'' Lawrence said. ``When we put in new people, we rebuild the show. We're always thinking about what the show means now.''

Although ``M. Butterfly'' is based on a true incident, its connection to ``Madame Butterfly'' is tangible, with a decided twist.

David Henry Hwang wrote his Tony-winning play after reading about a French diplomat involved in a 20-year affair with a member of the Beijing Opera, not knowing the singer was a man. The relationship, which began in the 1960s, came to light when the diplomat was charged with spying for the People's Republic of China.

The resolution is no less tragic than that in ``Madame Butterfly.'' David Cronenberg directed the 1993 film version starring Jeremy Irons and John Lone.

``It's an interesting story because it deals with some very sophisticated concepts,'' said Tom Felton, who will direct ``M. Butterfly'' for the Little Theatre of Virginia Beach.

``(Hwang) views it as metaphor, not just a man being duped by a Beijing opera singer. The seduction of the East by the West - it's the same plot used in `Madame Butterfly' and `Miss Saigon.' But in this particular play, in the end, the East seduces the West and is victorious. The diplomat ends up killing himself because he prefers his illusions to reality.''

The play, which premiered in Washington, D.C., in 1988, retains its mystery because China has only recently been opened to the West, Felton said. Audiences at the premiere of ``Madame Butterfly'' must have felt the same.

``Madame Butterfly,'' ``Miss Saigon'' and ``M. Butterfly'' are also intensely romantic.

``It would be interesting to go to all three and see basically the same theme explored in different interpretations,'' Felton said. ``The opera is classic; it fulfills a little bit of the fantasy world. `Miss Saigon' drives you into the reality of the Vietnam War and relationships that are very harsh.

`` `M. Butterfly' still becomes a romance, but it explores ideas that are popular today as opposed to ideas that were popular at the turn of century.''

Which brings the story full circle. Virginia Opera's Mark is glad audiences have the opportunity to begin at the ``source.''

``What's wonderful about creative work,'' he said, ``is it is life-giving both for the artists who are working on it - if they can find a reality in the work they're doing - but also in what they're able to present to an audience, which brings the work to life again.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Vicki Cronis/The Virginian-Pilot

Kaori Sato plays Cio-Cio San And Jay Hunter Morris plays Lt.

Pinkerton...

Color photo by Michael Le Poer Trench

The Musical "Miss Saigon"...

Color photo by Warner Home Video

The play (and film) "M. Butterfly" explores...

Side Bar

Want to Go?

[Call 623-1223]

Popular Performances

Other companies performing "Madame Butterfly" thie year:

For complete copy of this list, see microfilm