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Music
by
Giacomo Puccini
Directed
by
Anthony Minghella
Conducted
by
David Parry
Chorus
Master
Martin Merry
Designed
by
Michael Levine
Lighting
by
Peter Mumford
Puppetry
by
Blind Summit
Theatre
Cio-Cio
San
Mary Plazas
Suzuki
Jean Rigby
Pinkerton
Gwyn Hughes
Jones
Sharpless
Christopher
Purves
Goro
Alan Oke
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London
Coliseum
English
National Opera
05
Nov - 13 Dec 2005
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If
proof were needed for the
proposition that direction
and staging can transform
even a classic of the repertoire
into something higher, better,
more lucent and ravishing
than it already is, this brilliant
production of 'Madame Butterfly'
is it. A vulnerable and delicate
Butterfly with a thrilling
voice, such as Mary Plazas
gives us here, would make
any production special: but
add the imaginative talent
that underlies this production's
design, lighting and direction,
and the result defies superlatives.
With the overture a great
rectangle of dawn-red light
opens at the back of a sweepingly
spare ENO stage, and a representation
of Madame Butterfly appears
on the horizon of the metallic
slope that rises towards the
rear, trailing long prophetic
crimson banners of what, at
the end, become the streams
of blood of her suicide. She
dances with fans, then disappears
magically behind the sliding
screens of the house that
Pinkerton has bought for his
fifteen-year-old mock bride,
just as Pinkerton and Sharpless
appear to admire it.
The power of this opening
statement becomes apparent
as the drama unfolds. The
great love duet that closes
the first act has added poignancy
in this production, because
Anthony Minghella's superbly
intelligent theatrical direction
has made salient every possibility
of its emotional significance
and profound eroticism; whereas
in so many other productions
the first act's close is a
considerably lesser denouement
than that wrought by Pinkerton's
distant repeated cry of 'Butterfly!'
at the very end. Here the
drama has two towering, soul-wrenching
nodes, as Puccini surely intended.
The combination of Mary Plazas'
instinctive occupancy of the
role and Minghella's direction
makes her a memorable Cio-Cio-san.
She becomes Butterfly; and
Butterfly ‚ for it is she,
not someone playing her ‚
quivers with an intensity
of passion so believable and
painful that the tragedy of
the tale infuses the whole,
even from the first moment
of her happy appearance with
the wedding party.
The way this Butterfly is
staged makes one hear the
music anew: that is a wonderful
achievement. Every nuance
of the way the score tells
the story, explores its emotional
content, warns, predicts,
elevates and astonishes, is
increased by this staging.
The beautifully effective
lighting, which itself catches
and colours the mood and meaning
of the action, and the stroke
of genius in using a puppet
for Butterfly's child (expertly
and vividly worked by a team
of no fewer than three puppeteers),
add and add again to the sheer
brilliance of the conception.
This is by some distance the
finest and most imaginative
production of 'Madame Butterfly'
this reviewer has ever seen.
Although the phrase is worn,
it really does apply here:
it is unmissable.
AC
Grayling |
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