The final offering of the San Francisco Opera's fall season opened last week to run in repertory with the Company's ambitious new production of Verdi's Aida. Giacomo Puccini's well-loved masterpiece Madama Butterfly is never out of sight for long at the War Memorial Opera House, and the current staging is a revival of the triumphant 2014 Leslie Swackhamer (director), Jun Kaneko (design) and Patricia Racette (soprano) triumvirate. There have been some changes, and they are apparent in the sound of the show, but the overall experience remains compelling thanks to a repeat performance of the strong and unfussy direction and another chance to admire the beautiful visuals.
The director makes her dramatic points with small and telling details, and the designer creates a sense of time and place with his bright palette and striking imagery. The story is well-known and, like an Easter pageant, everyone knows how it is going to turn out. Swackhamer keeps the story fresh by letting the personalities evolve throughout the telling.
Cio-Cio-San/Mrs. Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton believes in love and honor from the start, so her fate is especially tragic and affecting when we finally see her face the bitter truth. Her feckless husband and the unwitting father of her child ardently instigates a careless marriage with thoughtless disregard, despite the advice of the U.S. Consul at Nagasaki, Sharpless. His ultimate regret at the abandonment of his Japanese family comes far too late. We are allowed to really dislike his callous and cowardly character even as we understand Butterfly's attraction to him.
So much so that Italian tenor Vincenzo Costanzo as Pinkerton, making his first operatic appearances in the United States, elicited boos amidst the applause at the final curtain. Poor guy; he looked genuinely startled. Someone should have told him that San Francisco audiences hiss the villain. He was actually being praised for a believable characterization. Costanzo did have a weak first act on the night I attended, though hardly worthy of disdain. His expressive but rather light voice opened cautiously and spread at the top, and he sounded strained in the massive love duet.
I don't know what he did during intermission, but it worked. The long second act doesn't require as much of the tenor, but Costanzo returned in confident and ringing voice. His acting and stage presence were convincing, too, and he made good on the promise of his debut.
American baritone Anthony Clark Evans also makes his SFO debut as the wise and caring Sharpless with a solid and sympathetic portrayal. Oh, why couldn't poor Butterfly take his advice and ditch Pinkerton for her haughty suitor, Prince Yamadori, amusingly essayed by second-year SFO Adler Fellow Edward Nelson?
Also standing helpless on the sidelines is Suzuki, Cio-Cio-San's loyal maid. Current Adler Fellow, Latvian mezzo-soprano Zanda Svede looks refreshingly young in a part often assigned to more matronly types. Her voice is as steady and reassuring as her character.
Franco-Canadian conductor Yves Abel returns to the SFO after his debut in 1996. He remedied the long absence with a control of Puccini's sweeping score that successfully tested the strength of the accomplished orchestral musicians and proved his own capability. Puccini's lovely and familiar music in this opera can handle a big, almost Wagnerian approach. My only complaint might be in Abel's occasional lapses into ponderous slowness. Butterfly's vigil before the morning return of her errant spouse felt like it was being taken in real time. Kaneko's designs really helped us focus, though, and the famous offstage "Humming Chorus" also helped us stay awake with the sad heroine.
What is the biggest reason for bringing the production back so soon, other than sure-fire box office receipts? Patricia Racette's Butterfly in 2014 was already indelibly etched in memory. She triumphantly embodied the role, reducing grown-ups in the audience to audible tears at the horrific finale. It didn't matter if the soprano displayed an encroaching edge and vibrato in her singing, she was so simply and utterly believable.
Armenian soprano Lianna Haroutounian is the answer. Her debut at SFO as another tragic Puccini heroine, Tosca, was universally praised. I was with the crowd for her standing ovation then, and I was on my feet again for her latest appearance.
Lianna (it's easier) has a flexible instrument that is every bit as beautiful at the top as it is through all the registers. Her thrilling high notes bloom with expressive power and perfectly match with Puccini's romantic melodies. Just wait until you hear Lianna's "Un bel di." Her lovely stage presence makes up for a certain generalized approach to acting, but she is still convincing enough. She provides more than enough justification for the production's revival.
Plays in repertory through Dec. 4.