Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center. Orchestra (Seat CC32, $25).
Story. See
previous post.
Conductor – Marco Armiliato. Pinkerton – Roberto Aronica, Goro – Tony Stevenson,
Suzuki – Maria Zifchak, Sharpless – Roberto Frontali, Cio-Cio-San – Ermonela Jaho.
Projection on curtain at the end of the opera.
The “previous post” referenced above is from 2006, a good
12 years ago. A search of my blog shows
my first entry referenced having seen this opera before, and Anne and I recall
seeing only the one by New York City Opera.
One reason for the story being so familiar has to be its simplicity, and
perhaps also its lasting impression on the audience. I remember listening to WQXR a couple of
weeks ago. The broadcasters must have
seen or heard this multiple times, yet their voices broke when they described
the synopsis of Act III.
The set is easy to describe, yet the sceneries – such as they
are – are captivating. What we have is
an empty stage with steps in the back that also turn into a slope. Different screens are moved around to denote
rooms and doors, and on a couple of occasions people would disappear behind
them in a bit of magic. Most (or all) of
the time they are moved by people in dark clothing; the idea is for the
audience to ignore them, although that is a bit difficult to do. Above the stage is a huge reflective panel
that provides another view of the stage which is lit with a lighting system
that moves. Strings of reflective pieces
are used to denote stars and also act as a curtain.
So in the hands of a clever set designer simplicity works. Today's set worked much better than what we saw in Semiramide.
The other WQXR bit I remember is when this set first came
out (it was the 2006-07 season) their was a description of these puppets. I thought marionettes, but I was wrong. Turns
out these are large articulated “objects” (for lack of a better term) moved
around by three people in dark clothing.
Both Anne and I didn’t think it worked, especially with Butterfly’s
child. The head of the child is close to
being grotesque – Chucky, anyone? Most
of the time it was difficult to ignore the puppeteers, I pity the one who had
to bend down all the time to move the child’s feet. I did like the sequence when the child slept
in Butterfly’s lap and the three puppeteers knelt behind him; it was
surprisingly touching. The other puppet
was used in the ballet scene in Act III.
It was dressed as Cio-cio-san.
The singing was uniformly excellent. I especially like how “un bel di vedremo” was
sung. Our seats were in the back of the auditorium,
so it was only when I used binoculars that I found Jaho unconvincing as a
teenager (perhaps no mature singer can get away with this.) However, her singing carried the show, from “ethereal”
to “resigned” (among the adjectives used in the Playbill.)
Curtain call. This is basically the set.
One surprise was how “oriental” a lot of the music
sounded. Equally surprising was the two
tunes most people know about (“humming chorus” being the other one) didn’t
sound that oriental.
The gentleman sitting in front had Italian on the screen,
and the bird “robin” is “pettirosso” (red-breasted bird.” Interesting only because at one point I
learned some Italian so I could understand these operas better.
I couldn’t find a review in the New York Times, but the
writer of the Operawire review loved Jaho.
There was a winter storm that swept through the area the
day before (Wednesday) and we were a bit worried what the street conditions
would be like. Nonetheless we decided to
drive in. The streets were clear, and we
had no problems with finding parking. Also,
attendance was quite good.
Dinner was at Europan.
Traffic home was unexpected busy on our way home.
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