A STILL-SHOCKING ‘BUTTERFLY’ TAKES OFF
Hiroko Oikawa
The Daily Yomiuri
Jan 16 2009
Japan
The production of Madama Butterfly by the New National Theatre, Tokyo,
unfolds like a picture being painted on a canvas. The off-white stage
is barren, with only fusuma sliding doors from a humble Japanese
house at center stage and long stairs representing a hill on which
the house stands overlooking Nagasaki Harbor. High above against the
back screen is a U.S. flag symbolically fluttering in the wind. Upon
this simple setting, director Tamiya Kuriyama paints the tragic story
of Cio-Cio-San (Butterfly).
"This opera was premiered in 1904, when the Russo-Japanese War
began and about the time when the United States started advancing
into Asia. I see the story as representing the dichotomy between the
West and the East," Kuriyama said prior to the production’s premiere
in 2005.
The time setting–the early 1900s or mid-Meiji era–was when Japan
was busy transforming itself into a modern nation. "The country
went through many value changes. Therefore, a barren stage set is
ideal for portraying a space where different cultures coexisted,"
Kuriyama explained.
Based partly on on the short story "Madame Butterfly" (1898) by
American author John Luther Long and its dramatization by David
Belasco, Giacomo Puccini’s opera revolves around a 15-year-old geisha,
the daughter of a former samurai who becomes the "local wife" of
U.S. Navy Lt. Pinkerton.
Believing hers is a marriage based on love, Cio-Cio-San waits for him
with her 3-year-old son, to whom she gave birth after he returned
to his country. But when Pinkerton returns with his American wife,
Cio-Cio-San commits suicide using a dagger left to her by her father.
While the West-East conflict is a central theme in the opera, Kuriyama
also says Cio-Cio-San’s tragedy is self-inflicted as a result of her
unsuccessful soul-searching. She gave up her identity as Japanese,
converted to Christianity, abandoning her family religion of Buddhism,
and left her job as a geisha in order to marry Pinkerton. But she was
unable to become either American or Pinkerton’s wife for all she gave
up, Kuriyama explains.
Puccini’s opera is studded with beautiful melodies. Among them, the
most famous are such arias as "Bimba dagli occhi pieni"–the duet of
love by Cio-Cio-San and Pinkerton, "Un bel di, vedremo" she sings in
hope of being reunited with her man and "Tu, tu, piccolo iddio"–the
farewell song to her son before her death.
The heroine sings throughout the opera, which is demanding vocally,
physically and dramatically. Playing the lead in this staging of the
production is Armenian soprano Karine Babajanyan, making her first
opera appearance in Japan. "It is a great honor for me and a big
responsibility," Babajanyan said in an interview for The Daily Yomiuri.
While finding it emotionally difficult to follow the sad story,
Babajanyan successfully turns herself into a woman she sees as being
"fragile outside and very strong inside."
"Her patience is boundless." A soprano with the Staatstheater Stuttgart
opera house, Germany’s most-talked-about troupe, Babajanyan was
nominated in 2001 as the singer of the year for her Cio-Cio-San by
Opernwelt, Europe’s most prestigious opera magazine. The acclaimed
artist also sang the title role in Puccini’s Tosca at the Bregentz
Festival in Austria in 2007 and 2008.
"The music of Puccini gives me the possibility to touch every
heart in the audience, especially in Madama Butterfly," Babajanyan
said. New National Theater’s production this year is also spiced
up by Italian tenor Massimiliano Pisapia–highly regarded for his
Puccini performances–as Pinkerton, baritone Ales Jenis of Slovakia as
American Consul Sharpless and Tomoko Obayashi as Cio-Cio-San’s maid,
Suzuki, with Carlo Montanaro leading the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra.
Babajanyan says she likes this production of the opera very much
because it’s so honest and pure. But she admits the way it ends is
still a surprise. "I have already done eight different productions
of Madama Butterfly, and I’m still shocked by the death of Butterfly
in this one."
That is one of the focal points in Kuriyama’s direction and is
what the audience must not miss. For Kuriyama, meanwhile, the Stars
and Stripes signify more than the U.S. navy ship’s presence in the
harbor. "When I read the translation of the libretto, I was struck
by how the structure of the world has not changed from the days of
Madama Butterfly. The way the flag flutters above the stage, it is
always over our heads today, and without it nothing can stand on its
own. I wanted my audience to see that mirrored in the opera" he said.
"Madama Butterfly" will play at the New National Theatre, Tokyo, a
short walk from Hatsudai Station on the New Keio Line, on Jan. 18 at
2 p.m., Jan. 21 at 7 p.m. and Jan. 24 at 2 p.m. For more information,
call the venue at (03) 5352-9999.