I find it rather telling, that most of my complaints I had with this production of Madama Butterfly can be laid at the feet of who ever cast it. Not all, but with a more appropriate cast, most of my complaints would not have happened.
To start with, if I said that the only two people who were cast correctly on voice type were Goro and Sharpless, you might begin to get an idea of why I was disappointed. When your character tenor is louder in the opening scene than your romantic lead, you have a problem. Early on, I was wondering if it would have been better to reverse the casting. Of course, with the veteran Graeme McFarlane, that might have changed the way we think about Pinkerton, but it still gives you an idea.
Quite frankly, as I said to people afterwards, who would expect me to be more moved by Lucia than Butterfly? That an opera I never go to unless I know the cast will lift a boring night into a thrilling one was more moving than an opera that should leave one either a blubbering mess or annoyed at the injustice of life, or hating men, I think says it all. But why you ask? Well, to start with, I never was convinced Pinkerton was seriously interested in Butterfly. There were 2 main reasons for this. First, you need to be able to sing the music in an ardent manner, with power to burn to convince. It's not a role you give to a Mozartian tenor. To be sure, his is a beautiful voice, used well, but nothing could make up for the serious lack of power. If he had been swapped with the Edgardo we say in Lucia, both operas would have been improved, I suspect. He also did not look captivated by her. Maybe his acting did not carry to the back of the theatre, but I never felt the passion. I did not feel they were about to rip each other's clothes off after the big duet between Butterfly and Pinkerton. Considering the passionate nature of the music, and the fact we are talking their wedding night, that says damp squib more than anything else.
Our Butterfly was Japanese, and to be honest, that always gives me concerns. I have yet to hear a Japanese soprano whose voice has the power to sing Butterfly well. I'm not saying they do not exist, but Hiromi Omura did not convince me they do. Again, a beautiful voice, but not a voice with the sort of emotional power you need as Butterfly. Pretty voiced, and mostly successful in a production designed around one of Australia's more charismatic singers, but just not nearly big enough, or able to hold our interest. We need to remember, Butterfly is an Italian opera character with a Japanese veneer, not a Japanese character with an Italian veneer, which is more what we got.
Instead, we got a singer who sounded like she should have been singing Pamina, probably with a small Mozartian orchestra, not singing a big Puccini role. Yes, she produced a beautiful sound with good legato, with a sweet tone from top to bottom. But, this role needs a beautiful voice with the power to thrill, where she sounds triumphant in her climactic notes in Un bel di. Here, we did not get that. Rather we had pretty singing from a voice that was hopelessly miscast.
Suzuki you say? Well, Domenica Matthews as Suzuki was what I expected. That is to say, competent, a credible performance, but if the cast had the voices required for the role, she would have been miscast. With a small voiced Butterfly, it did not matter, but then, a big voiced Suzuki would have been wrong in this cast also… The rest of the cast? None of them stood out as bad or particularly good. They were competent, as you expect, although, the Yamadori of Malcolm Ede was almost inaudible at times.
Now having said that, this is a stunningly pretty production. The set is a series of Japanese paper screen style walls that are raised and lowered as appropriate to reveal other people or scenery outside. There is a wooden platform in the centre which is surrounded by a shallow moat. Besides the usual named characters and the chorus (who only appear on stage during the wedding at the start) there are 5 mute performers who are dressed like lepers (it is the obvious description when you see them), or, I guess, Butoh performers. They spend much of the opera on stage stationary, or carrying things on stage for the performers. They are never acknowledged as existing, even as characters take props from them.
The costumes are all typically Japanese appearing, though I could not comment on how authentic they are. Most of the costumes in the opening were in shades of red. They always spoke volumes about the characters, with Butterfly changing to darker sombre colours as the performance progressed.
So, to sum up. This was a
deeply disappointing Madama Butterfly, with performers who should not
have been cast in the roles they were. All I can do is leave you with a
reminder of how good this production can be, with Cheryl Barker as
Butterfly, and Jay Hunter Morris as her Pinkerton. If only I had seen that, not last night's cast!
And, a late edit to bring you this:
This is how you do Butterfly! Full blooded, with intense passion!!!
So, before I began to talk about the current Lucia di Lammermoor, I felt it was important to give you a good idea of what Emma Matthews sounds like. This aria is from The Love of the Nightingale, by Richard Mills, and the role was written with her in mind. When I hear this now, I can't help hearing how perfectly it shows off everything that Lucia does too. Florid singing, check; effortless high nights floating in the stratosphere, check; ability to convey emotion purely by sound, check; fearlessness, check.
So, what does her Lucia sound like? Well, at present the only thing available on youtube is a bad video from the previous production. The sound is quite good, considering, but the video is frankly, pretty poor quality. We seriously need video of Emma doing this role, in this production. She frankly, is astonishing.
Now, this is the old production that used to be the star vehicle for Dame Joan Sutherland. Dame Joan, who probably sets the standard by which other voices should be judged by in this role, is a very different performer to Emma. Emma has the fearlessness of a modern acting singer who has worked with directors who live in a world where the singer is not king, but the tool to create what they want. Dame Joan worked mostly with directors who worshipped the ground she walked on, so her performances are very much a reflection of that. I cannot imagine Dame Joan ever singing flat on a table, legs spread as if welcoming her lover into her. That happens during the mad scene in this production of Lucia, and it was totally appropriate for the character, a reminder that though unhinged, it was all about the characters' relationships in this opera.
To give you an idea of what this production looks like, this is the mad scene from La Fenice (its a coproduction with Opera Australia and Houston Grand Opera), who had the video rights for this new production (with Jessica Pratt as Lucia):
As you can see from this, this is a very dark, gothic take on the opera. The stage is very bare, decorated with images of storm clouds the whole time. There is nothing quite like seeing an empty stage with only one person for making that person look lost, or drawing attention to that person. Though, quite what doing that with Normanno at the beginning and end of many scenes, I am not sure what the director was trying to achieve. Making it seem what happened was a result of him puling the strings perhaps? If so, it was not made clear.
Having said that, this was a stunning looking Lucia. Everyone apart from Lucia, Arturo and Enrico spent the evening in dark sombre coloured clothes. There was very little scenery or props. A couple of chairs now and then, the table in the mad scene, the wedding register for the wedding scene, other than that, nothing of import. There was also no fountain (this features prominently in the plot) but the fountain was played as being where the orchestra was, which meant you forgot about it not being there.
Mostly, the direction and setting being so minimalist and dark was ideal. It focused your attention on the story and the music, where it belonged, This was was not a production where you were constantly distracted by unnecessary things making you think "What is that there for? How does that fit in the plot?" Rather, it was designed specifically to enhance the sombre mood, and to focus attention on the principal singers, rather than anywhere else. The only time this was not successful, was paradoxically in some of the big set pieces, where the chorus were moved around for no apparent reason, or where they were deliberately moved in ways that distracted attention from what was going on? A failure to trust the performers to keep attention focused on what was happening, perhaps? Or a lack of trust on the audience's attention span? Either way, there were a couple of times where I thought, why are the chorus doing that, and never saw the point, apart from creating movement. Sometimes it was distracting from crucial action, which seems very odd.
The music was under the capable hands of Christian Badea, who brought a very precise sound from the orchestra. A couple of times I was thinking, I wished he had conducted either of the Aidas I went to, as he understood the need for precision, in a way I missed in the Aida ensemble work. There are times when music must be precise, and times when you can let your hair down and run with it. Our conductor here kept everything tightly together, and sympathetic to the singers on stage, while bringing a potent orchestral presence.
I have to say also, before I get to the singers, not only did the director and designer do a great job with this production, so too did the lighting designer. Working as much with shadow as with light, she really helped to bring out the creepy in the relationship between Enrico and Lucia. At other times, shadows were used to indicate that others are just out of sight, but we know they are there, listening, ready to take their part in the drama.
Now, to the singers... First of all, in Lucia there are three characters who exist to be cyphers. In their own right, they hardly matter, except they enable the story to proceed in important ways. Normanno, the first of these, is the man who in many ways sets the action off. He reveals to Enrico about Lucia's affair with a man he suspects is Edgardo, their sworn enemy. That's really his sole point, to set off Enrico and be his offsider as needed. As an actor Jonathon Abernethy was fine, bringing a touch of creepy stalkerish behaviour to his treatment of Lucia, and being a frequent malevolent presence at the start and end of scenes. As a singer, well, if I heard him I might have been happy, but in the opening, he got drowned out by the chorus! Thankfully, he did not often have to sing over them, but his sounded a pleasant enough character tenor, but frankly, even Normanno needs a voice that carries. Once he was singing without the chorus, it was fine, but, it really was not a good introduction.
As Alisa, Lucia's nurse, Teresa La Rocca seemed a little wasted. She is someone who is used to having big roles, and singing them well. Here she was the nurse and constant companion, who exists to be Lucia's confidante and care giver. Again, it is a role that is more about being a presence and an actor, than being a singer. Having a good singer in the role, seems well, luxurious. But, throughout the opera, she proved her worth, helping to reinforce the sense that Lucia has long been unstable. That what happens after the wedding, was not just a result of current events, but that Alisa had been keeping it from happening for a long time.
Then we have Arturo, the ill fated bride groom, sung by Andrew Brunsdon. He comes on as the conquering hero who is here to save the family from ruin, but brings about his own ruin. Vocally he was more than up to the task. Arturo only exists in one scene, and having a good singer who solely exists to die offstage always seems a bit odd, but welcome in this case. Having said that, I can't help thinking that his voice suits the more dramatic roles than the lyric ones. I'm not saying he is a dramatic tenor, but this role did not seem to sit as well as the messenger in Aida did. Tho, in either case, he did what was needed, and did it well.
Now, as Raimondo, we had a far too youthful Richard Anderson. We always think of the priest as old, and in this case, he looked a similar age to the other leads. It was not a problem, it was just... Odd. The age normally helps him to come across as offering wisdom to Lucia, encouraging her to go ahead with the marriage, where as with him younger, he seemed somehow to be more in league with Enrico, which to me makes him a less sympathetic character. At any rate, he sang his two arias and ensemble work with the authority we expect from him, his big resonant bass navigating the florid demands with ease and security. Possibly, I expect more luxuriating in the melody of his big aria that announces Lucia's madness, but I suspect that was not his choice to make. It somehow seems cruel for one of the best bass arias to occur just before all memory of it gets obliterated by the mad scene to end all mad scenes.
As Edgardo, I found James Valenti very much a mixed bag. On the one hand, his is a voice with an undeniably pleasing sound. On the other, I heard a lot of things that made me worry for him. To me, he sounds like a singer working too hard, trying to force the sound rather than allowing it to bloom. People sometimes talk of a manufactured sound, rather than a organic one, and that was how it felt to me. By the end I felt that less (was he better warmed up perhaps?) but at the same time, his high notes were a struggle and not pretty. Granted, the final scene is a cruel piece of writing for any tenor, but I expected more. Having said all that, he was convincing as the hot headed lover who fell in love with his enemy's sister, and certainly looked the part. I'm just worried that he is not achieving what he could be, vocally, based on what I heard.
As Enrico, I was biased to dislike Giorgio Caoduro. To my mind, this role belongs to Jose Carbo in Australia. Having witnessed Jose first hand, I find it hard to imagine a better local singer in the role. I also do not see why we should bring in a foreign singer to sing this when someone local sings it so well. On the other hand, having now heard him, I am very happy to have him. Giorgio brings many things to this role, with a great voice being one of them. By the end of the night, I was impressed. I was also wishing he had sung Amonasro in the Aidas I saw in the same theatre. Something tells me it will be in his future.
Which brings me to Emma as Lucia.
Now, a word of warning here. I only really wanted to go to Lucia because it was Emma. This is an opera I know and know well. I have sung chorus in it, and quite frankly, most of the time, I would not choose to go to a Lucia. Its the sort of opera where unless the leads are special, it is just a tedious night out. In this case, the hype was fully justified. Emma may not have the massive voice of Dame Joan in this role, but she is a singer whose voice is always audible, and it never felt small in this role. For such a small figure, the size of sound produced seems somehow a freak of nature. From the opening with Regnava, through to the end of the mad scene when Alisa leads her off, with her having regressed to a childlike state at the end, this was HER opera. Every note was like a drop of crystal, ringing clear throughout the theatre. Brightly polished and gleaming, her voice is a miracle of laser precision and clarity.
At the same time, while singing the fiendish music with her trademark beauty of tone, Emma lives this role. This is the second role I have seen her in recently where she ends up with blood all over her (Nightingale being the other) and here she revels in it. Not as in, her character becomes a bloodthirsty madwoman, but that while in the psychotic state of the mad scene, she is all bloodied and wallows in it. It was a picture of a woman truly unhinged. That she is so convincing while singing with such incredible beauty at the same time is unbelieveable. Except I saw it, and heard it. She is all that, and damn good too.
So, yes, this is a Lucia worth going to see. It is a Lucia worth taking a weekend away to see if need be. This is a production that will haunt me. It is already haunting one of my friends who was there last night for his third time in this run! While I am not that fanatical, this is a production and a cast I would happily see again. The fact that I am saying this about an opera I tend to avoid probably says all you need to know.
I am also shocked that this is not being recorded for posterity. It should be.
This is all that is available on line of this magnificent production...
