Highlights
Beautiful Butterfly
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| Puccini's Madam Butterfly |
The ENO's production of Puccini's Madam Butterfly will be enjoyed particularly for its visual content if nothing else.
Carolyn Choa has done well in reviving Anthony Minghella's original production with Judith Howarth in the title role of Cio-Cio San (Madam Butterfly) but sadly the rest of the cast at times just do not match her performance.
The opera opens on the hilltop house in Nagasaki recently acquired by Lieutenant Pinkerton of the U.S Navy who plans to wed the fifteen-year-old Geisha Cio-Cio San in an arranged marriage. Pinkerton, played by Gwyn Hughes Jones enters with marriage broker Goro ( played by Christopher Gillet ).
From the start it was apparent Pinkerton's voice did not reflect his broad stature and did not often carry well to those in the dress circle. Others in the gods must have been straining their ears in frustration.
Cio-Cio San arrived, ominously silhouetted against a blood red background with her entourage. Soprano Judith Howarth took a while to settle into her role but single handedly held the performance together.
Conductor David Parry drove the orchestra which often sounded like a car in need of a service, lacking range and thrust,making it difficult to make out what was being sung as either the performers were not pitching in with enough gusto or the orchestra was over enthusiastic.
Praise to an intriguing set with beautiful costumes creating a riot of colour. A mirror effect ceiling reflects the space below and so the audience can in effect be above the performers. The closing scene of the first act with Pinkerton and Butterfly is memorable as the newlyweds are left alone swathed in a moving swirl of lanternsheld by black veiled dancers. Butterfly's son by the fiendish Pinkerton is played by a wooden doll.
Judith Howarth delivers a passionate final act when her estranged husband returns with a new wife in tow. Her dreams of fulfilment are shattered when we see the butterfly spiral to her final deadly act, performed with poignancy and conviction.
Madam Butterfly is at, London Coliseum, St. Martin's Lane, Trafalgar Square until March 7. Nearest Tube Charing Cross, Covent Garden. Box office 0871 911 0200. www.eno.org
5:15pm Friday 15th February 2008
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