Madama Butterfly
On December 22 (Puccini’s birthday! :)) I’d like to post some words about his opera Madama Butterfly.
Not long ago, I’ve discovered that one of our local library departments had a small collection of opera CDs and even DVDs. One can watch them for free early in the morning, if there’s no one else there (one TV set). Last week I woke up early :) came there and demanded Madama Butterfly with Domingo and Freni. Instead, they gave me another one, with Anna Moffo and English subtitles. Now I think it’s a real piece of good luck my first ‘acquaintance’ with Puccini’s opera began from this old 1956 recording.
The plot is too well-known to retell, but I think you might all the same have a look at the synopsis… as a manga!
Madama Butterfly 01 by =FionaMeng on deviantART
It’s a link to the first part of it, go to the artist’s gallery - there are five pages in total. She says the work was commissioned by Vancouver opera. A colourful retelling of the plot!
Now, to my black-and-white butterfly.
It’s a RAI production with Anna Moffo as Cio Cio san and Renato Cioni as Pinkerton, a film made for television, and certainly it has some drawbacks (to say it at once, I thought some gestures and postures unnatural), but I loved it all the same.
The music was surprisingly easy to listen, it appealed to me at once - better than it was with Tosca when the music had to find its way into my soul. The film began with birds’ chirping which passed harmoniously into music. Light and flowing, the melodies themselves would remind you of birds and those white blossoms… And when the story unfolds in all its tragedy, the music turns unspeakably beautiful. And even in the most lyrical first act, when everything is all right and bright… I was stung by the short orchestral phrase that sounded directly after the wedding of Cio Cio san: it seemed full of such unexpected sadness that I shivered and felt bad for the Butterfly… but in a moment the music becomes cheerful again, and that short instant of premonition may be forgotten.
One can smile and feel at ease only during the first act, IMO. Personally, I was amused by the hero’s stupid name: Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton, think you, and from the ship Lincoln! And, although I am usually bored during long lyrical love duets, the one in this opera made me smile. One has to see how, right after the marriage ceremony (and what went with it) is over, the aesthetically-minded Japanese girl admires the stars and the beauty of the night - poetic soul! - and nearly exasperates the more down-to-earth tenor, who can only clench his fists and repeat something like: yes, okay, yes, stars, beautiful, but everyone has already gone to sleep, why not us? lol. (I’ll provide the links at the end of this post, okay?) Well I suppose different actresses can play that differently, but I believed Anna Moffo and I’m sure her heroine was really that high-spirited and romantic…
The DVD cover says RAI always chose experienced opera singers for their TV films, but in this case a younger one was preferred - she had to look like the 15-year-old girl from the libretto. I’d say Anna Moffo looks older than 15, but definitely young. It’s true that the role is very demanding, even physically: from the moment she appears, Cio Cio san hardly leaves stage.
I liked her. She has a lightly soaring voice, beauty and talent. In the first act, she is just a vivacious girl, laughing and frolicking. Sometimes her mimic reminded me of… Lolita Torres!!! :))))))) - when she was beaming with joy and when she acted an American judge so funnily (that’s in the second act, yes?) But surely she’s at her best in her grief and anguish. She really makes your eyes fill with tears then. (well at least that counts for me)
Cio Cio ‘the Butterfly’ is the central figure of the opera, it’s all about her, and Anna Moffo holds one’s attention easily. Other people seem more like supporting characters.Miti Truccato Pace as Suzuki the faithful maid was very convincing, and also Afro Poli (Sharpless, the American consul in Nagasaki): I nearly felt sorry for the old man, so well the actor showed (only with his face) his disapproval of Pinkerton and his pity for Cio Cio, that I felt like: poor old chap, but what could he really do? Had he tried to interfere, no one would have listened…and anyway, he wasn’t smart enough to be of any help, if he did think it okay to take a baby away from its mother… Speaking of the characters… try and find a more perfectly annoying bitch than that Pinkerton tenor! I cannot. Never seen such a disgusting creature in any opera. Renato Cioni played him well enough; actually, there’s not so much to play, just walk around with a smug face. I don’t believe he felt any remorse at all. Even at the very beginning, when he was ‘in love’ with the Butterfly, he planned to get himself a proper American wife. And here I come to one of my most unpleasant impressions. I knew the plot, I knew he would betray her, but I didn’t know exactly how. So, there was that scene when he comes to take Cio Cio’s son away from her, in the company of Sharpless the Consul and Kate the proper wife, and they speak to Suzuki, and it finally dawns on the idiot that his abandoned Japanese wife suffers and still loves him. He is shocked, while Sharpless walks in circles around him, repeating grimly: I knew! I told you! I knew it! - with the result that Pinkerton turns ion him and says: then you tell her! - and runs away! I sat and stared open-mouthed, honestly. Couldn’t believe my eyes. That’s a fine soldier! If I were his commander, I wouldn’t trust him even with the kitchens and lavatories. (And folks at DeviantArt pity Kate.) The shit is that he thinks himself good and nice, and he never really _wanted_ to hurt the girl and make her suffer - he just didn’t care. At All. And for that clod a fine, sensitive, noble, loving woman had to die. Effing I don’t know what.
I’m afraid I made a complete fool of myself in that library. Certainly in the reading rooms there are to be other people except me. I must have looked crazy when, at the second act already, I started to pretend I had a terrible itching in my eyes, and then, there was that: shut the windows Suzuki, it’s too light e troppo primavera! - I hope the librarian didn’t bother to ask herself why one who came in looking perfectly sane went away mad-eyed, blowing the nose. I hope she thought I’d caught a virus. Lol.
The final scene: Con onor muore
I cannot watch it again, but sure extracts are LESS impressive than when you see the whole opera.
The very beginning with chirping
CioCio San appears
The love duet
The Butterfly waits for her husband - Un bel di vedremo
I don’t know it myself why I was so impressed, but impressed I was and still am. I’d love to learn about your impressions.
(Learnt that in the movie with Cary Grant she sent the child away to her relatives. That’s better, but those who saw it say she turned into a silly girl without Puccini’s music. I can believe it. :( Don’t know if I should buty the DVD which I’ll not be able to watch yet. Hmmm.)
Don’t know if I will or will not be in the web tomorrow, if not, I’m here on Thursday. :)