An Invigorating Madama Butterfly in Baden Baden Germany

 I think Madama Butterfly is Puccini's greatest opera. It has a famed soprano lead, with perhaps the most famous aria of all time ("Un bel di"). Unlike La Boheme, a one act wonder (but what a first act!), Butterfly starts strong with a sublime Act 1 love duet and builds to a cataclysmic finish with Cio-Cio-San's suicide. Unlike Turandot, it is complete. Unlike Tosca, it does not rely on gimmicky plot twists (eg a fake firing squad) but instead tells a down to earth human story (love, betrayal, cultural incompetence). The music is relentlessly gorgeous, exemplifying the strengths of post-romantic harmony pushing all the way up against its boundaries. The score is glorious from moment one, when a Bachian fugue set to "Asian" motifs emphasizes the recurring West vs. East theme of the opera. The orchestral dynamics are extreme and almost violent, pushing the romantic era to it's emotional apex. It is one of my favorite operas to listen to, just for the orchestra. Listen to the 1974 Karajan version if you can: the orchestra almost makes you forget that Luciano Pavarotti is on the recording. Madama Butterfly was my first opera, when I saw a 1960's performance at Los Angeles' Greek Theater featuring legendary soprano Beverly Sills. My parents later told me that the age 7 Frazier, sensitive little bloke that he was, cried at the end. Not because he was tired, as my parents initially assumed, but because I was upset at how the US sailor Pinkerton was "so mean" to Cio-Cio-San!

Now all this said, the opera can be difficult to perform these days. At one point during their exquisite love duet, the 15 year old Cio-Cio San says to Pinkerton, her US sailor/lover/new and soon-to-be-ex husband "Make love to me like I'm a child". Ick. Now, Europe has always been less sensitive compared to Americans about age differences in love affairs (eg they were not so bothered by the relationship between 24- and 17-year old guys in Call Me by you Name), but this opera really pushes those boundaries, especially when combined with the themes of cultural appropriation and objectification of Asian women. Even the Italo-fake Asian music would never make it nowadays, likely cancelled due to cultural appropriation. These difficulties lead many directors to radically update the work, making Cio-Cio-San even more of a victim, sometimes a prostitute, and usually demonizing Pinkerton even more that Puccini does. The sailor is already pretty unsympathetic in traditional versions, showing up in Act 3 and somehow expecting no problems with his plan to have Cio-Cio-San hand over their 3 year old child to his new American wife. Puccini, a bit uncomfortable with his initial monochromatic US villain, even added a "guilt" aria for him (" Addio, fiorito asil"), but ends it with the lines "I can't stand your [Cio-Cio-San's] misery...I'll run away". He then flees, never having the guts to face his abandoned wife. Actually I admire the courage of Puccini in writing such a villain into his opera, and in making the point of how the West wronged the East in that era. So I think that, even in plotting, Madama Butterfly  is far more evolved and socially conscious than other romantic era Orientalia like Turandot or The Mikado.

The performance I saw at the Baden Baden (Germany) Easter Festival was quite fine, with the luxury of having (perhaps) the world's finest orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic (BPO), in the pit under its director Kirill Petrenko to play the magnificent orchestral score. I was unfamiliar with the principals, but the two leads were excellent. The Italian Eleonora Buratto (age 42) did not quite look or sound 15, but looked younger than some dramatic sopranos, had a lovely lyric voice, clearly sounded over the big orchestra without strain, and acted well. 

American tenor Jonathan Tetelman, 36, was youthful sounding and appearing, with just the right amount of creepiness, cluenessness, and guilt. His arias sounded great, with a nice high range. The two of them collaborated with the subtle BPO in a moving Act 1 love duet. For once, both were young and attractive enough to make us believe the scenario visually, as if the incredible music were not enough. 

The production, designed by Giò Forma, had some of the best use of projections and video I have seen in opera. The abstract Japanese motifs twisted, writhed, and echoed the music without distracting from it. 

Most striking was the recurring visual leitmotif of an American flag, which alternately waved, burned, and even cried. I doubt that this would have been acceptable in the USA, but it was very effective. 

The only real attempt at updating the opera was a recurring theme, introduced before the orchestral introduction, in which the doomed couple's son, now a teenager, returns from the US to Japan to seek out his origin story, and observes the tragedy from the side of the stage throughout the production. He gradually learns about the sad story of his birth and departure (kidnapping) from Japan. I don't think this added plot device really added anything, but at least did not distract. All in all this was an excellent production, perhaps lacking in star power, but making up for this in intelligent directing, staging, conducting, and singing.