Conductor
Noel Davies
Original
Director
Graham Vick
Revival
director
Ian Rutherford
Designer
Stefanos Lazaridis
Madam
Butterfly
Julia Melinek
Lieutenant
Pinkerton
Bonaventura
Bottone
(John Hudson
from May 31)
Sharpless
Alan Opie
(Nicholas Folwell
from June 10)
Suzuki
Christine Rice
Goro
Richard Roberts
Bonze
Mark Richardson
Yamadori
Leslie
John Flanagan
Kate
Pinkerton
Victoria Simmonds
High
Commissioner
Barry Martin (Christopher
Speight
May 31/June 8)
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Madam Butterfly
by Giacomo Puccini
English National Opera
London Coliseum
11 May - 13 June 2002
In this powerful and moving production Butterfly's long night wait is given its full measure, revealing Puccini at his most haunting and poignant. It is a gripping pause; after the famous "humming chorus" there is a meditative symphonic poem about night and patience, about watching and yearning, exquisite in its restraint and its melodious evocation of silent shadows. By exactly the right alchemical operation on the rich material of Puccini's score, namely excellent direction and beautifully sensitive conducting, the whole of this Butterfly succeeds as this interlude does, in being at once intimate and universal, telling of a highly particular and personal tragedy which yet gathers and sums all such tragedy, and is one of the most heart-rendingly eloquent testaments ever written to the might of love.
Bonaventura Bottone has a marvellous voice. He acted Pinkerton extremely well, as an insensitive and unpleasant individual at the outset, who is staggered, when he returns to Nagasaki after abandoning Butterfly and marrying an American wife, by the depth and patience of Butterfly's love. But if he acted well, he sang even better; he has an immensely pleasing true voice, expressive and unforced. Alan Opie was as always in fine voice too, and he also is an actor of great talent, playing Sharpless in precisely the right sympathetic key, enhancing the poignancy of the drama as a close and pitying witness to its unfolding.
Julia Melinek had a shaky start on the night this reviewer was present. Her first high note was off, and she sounded raucous in the sequence before the marriage contract is signed. But by the time of the love duet, which has surely never been more beautifully and movingly sung, she had found her voice, and for the rest of her demanding occupancy of the stage was an impassioned, brave, yearning, unshakeable Butterfly in great voice. She was seconded by a marvellous Suzuki in Christine Rice, who lent yet more weight to the great acting talent in this cast – and by a completely delightful little boy as Butterfly's "golden-haired" son who, despite seeming to be scarcely more than the three years of age required by the text, spent over half an hour on stage remembering a series of complicated tasks amazingly well – and brushing the tears from Butterfly's face with all the appearance of real filial concern. The child is a detail; but all the details worked in this production, and the result is outstanding.
A feature of ENO productions is their inclusive feel, the relish and unpretension with which they nevertheless reach world-class heights, and send audiences home hungry for more. Opera houses and audiences in certain other European cities have this feel about them – of being unstuffy, accessible, and immensely enjoyable, yet all as an aspect of seeking the artistic uttermost. This Butterfly is ENO at its best in these respects, and it is concomitantly one of the best Butterflies I have seen anywhere in Europe in recent years.
AC Grayling
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