It’s a mean old man’s world
Opera Siam’s rendition of Madama Butterfly is a reminder of the opera’s contemporary relevance
Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly has been reducing audiences to puddles of tears for over a century. Opera Siam’s recently concluded two-night performance of the beloved opera was no exception. Artistic director and conductor Somtow Sucharitkul assembled an all-star cast of international and Thai singers who enchanted their audiences last Wednesday and Thursday at the Thailand Cultural Centre.
Singaporean soprano Nancy Yuen played the tragic Cio-Cio-san, or Madama Butterfly. Spanish tenor Israel Lozano played the scoundrel BF Pinkerton, who seduces and abandons his child-bride. Welsh baritone Phillip Joll took on the role of Sharpless, the well-intentioned US consul, Italian mezzo-soprano Emanuela Barazia played Suzuki, Cio-Cio-san’s ever-faithful servant, and the devious Goro, a local “marriage broker” or pimp, was depicted by Thai tenor Chaiporn Phuangmalee.
The opera is in three acts, with a brief intermission between acts one and two.
In act one, Pinkerton, a US naval officer rents a house in Nagasaki for him and his bride-to-be Cio-Cio-san, who he intends to eventually leave for a “proper American bride”. Lozano, as Pinkerton, is a virile villain who readily admits to his sexually predatory nature in the opera’s opening moments. He charms and seduces the 15-year-old Butterfly into a night of passion before he casually discards her, but not before he unknowingly impregnates her. Lozano was so convincing in his performance that the audience playfully booed him at the curtain call to which he shrugged as if to say: “I know, I know.” Pinkerton is a contemptible character and the audience must despise him. Lozano made sure we did.
Yuen has made a career of playing Cio-Ciosan and I would encourage any casual patron of the arts to look up some of her earlier performances on YouTube (there are many, including a 2007 performance for Opera Siam’s predecessor, the Bangkok Opera). As Cio-Cio-san, Yuen is all beatific beauty, fragile and vulnerable. She is doomed and everyone around her knows it. On Thursday night, her voice broke during the opening act with the emotional joy of a young girl whose prayers have been answered, belying the unfolding tragedy.
Act two begins three years later. The people surrounding Cio-Cio-san try to convince her to forget Pinkerton and remarry. But she remains steadfast in her devotion. It’s here that Yuen sings the opera’s most enduring aria, Un Bel Di Vedremo, which led to a momentary interruption of appreciation from the audience.
During this act, Sharpless arrives with a letter, intending to inform Cio-Cio-san that Pinkerton has remarried and will not return to her. But Sharpless abandons the task due to the young girl’s excitement over the expected return of her lover. Joll, as Sharpless, is well-intentioned — even warning Pinkerton that his lustful pursuit of Cio-Cio-san will destroy the girl — yet he remains impotent, reminding the viewer of a certain body of nations that has the authority to negotiate treaties but no power to enforce them.
As act two merges into act three, it provides the orchestra with perhaps its finest moment with the haunting Humming Chorus. Here, Suzuki picks leaves from a cherry blossom, whose flowers bloom beautifully and briefly before withering and dying, setting the tone for the final act of unbearable cruelty.
In Butterfly, Puccini presents a scathing indictment of a nascent US imperialism. Notes from the Star-Spangled Banner, inserted into the score, mock Cio-Cio-san’s innocence and culture, and in doing so also mock all that is good in humanity. Puccini sees the changing new world order and Madama Butterfly is his warning.
In times of social and political upheaval, Madama Butterfly represents a bold choice for Thailand. But in his programme notes, Somtow says Butterfly resonates with Southeast Asian audiences because, at its very base, it is a story of human trafficking.
“It’s about a rich, white man who comes to Asia to exploit an innocent, impoverished underaged girl” who is procured to Pinkerton in a “sordid transaction” with a marriage broker, “but we would know him [the broker] as a trafficker,” he writes.
Thailand is “a country in which this plot line happens for real far too frequently”.
Yuen’s performance of Un Bel Di Vedremo led to a momentary interruption of appreciation