Ken Howard
The Los Angeles Opera performs the famed "Madam Butterfly." The Seattle Opera will perform the opera Jan. 12.

Sacrifice and suffering led to 'Butterfly's' acclaim

WAYNE BLOOMINGDALE

Originally published Friday, January 11, 2002

Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) always appears in the top 10 of the most-produced opera composers in the world. The question would be which of his works has gained the most popularity: "Madam Butterfly" or "La Boheme."

Perhaps it depends on one's taste, but both are standard on the list of hits.

"Madam Butterfly" did not start out with raves. Quite to the contrary, it was a dismal failure on its 1904 opening night in Milan, Italy. But Puccini, an avowed optimist, was not about to give in to either the public or critics. To a friend, he wrote, "It is I who am right. It is the finest opera I have written."

Time has more than verified the composer's convictions.

Uniquely, Puccini had successes with geographic settings be had never seen. In his creative mind, "Turandot" took him to ancient China. "Manon Lescaut" concludes in the badland near New Orleans. "Madam Butterfly" is located in early 20th-century Nagasaki, Japan.

After seeing "Madam Butterfly" in New York, Puccini obtained the rights to the play from its American author, David Belacso. The libretto was written by Giuseppi Giacosa and Luigia Illica, his collaborators on "La Boheme" and "Tosca."

Regardless of his previous successes, Puccini suffered over the transformation of "Butterfly" to opera. The chief hurdles were creating the exotic oriental culture on stage and the appropriate music. His agony transmitted itself to his librettists in dozens of revisions. Puccini pondered why he was giving such a huge portion of his life to the project and began to wonder if it would ever end.

Unfortunately, the ending was only the beginning of more personal torture for the composer. At its premiere, the audience hated the Eastern flavor of the setting and orchestration. After extensive revision, the opera was produced again, this time in Brescia, to avoid the public in Milan. What followed was a great admiration for the tragic Butterfly, even surpassing Tosca as Puccini's strongest heroine.

The story is as old as time, a tale of seduction and abandonment. An American naval officer, Pinkerton, falls in love with the young Japanese geisha girl, Cio-Cio-San, known as Butterfly. He turns out to be the prize-winning rat of all opera. After a marriage ceremony, he leaves her pregnant and sails off to America. Butterfly bears the child, a boy she calls "Trouble," and waits for the day her "husband" will return.

In an act of blind narcissism (some might call it macho stupidity), Pinkerton does return, but with an American wife in tow. Butterfly decides that she must give their child to him to be raised as a good Pinkerton in America. In preparation for their separation, Butterfly hands the boy an American flag to hold, blindfolds him, then steps behind a screen and kills herself with her father's dagger.

The last voice we hear is Pinkerton's, calling plaintively, as he returns to the house in search of Butterfly.

As the opera progressed through its history to the fame it enjoys today, it resembled a game of "Divas and Butterflys." The tragic heroine became an object of desire by many noted sopranos.

Unfortunately, the structure has often been a cause for mismatching, like composer Richard Strauss' adaptation of Oscar Wilde's play "Salome," based on the biblical story. Both Puccini and Strauss created vocal lines that demanded maturity beyond the youth of their subjects. Consequently, we have seen big-voiced, middle-aged women belting out high notes while attempting to be adolescent and seductive.

But this is opera, the most complex form of theater, and we forgive because it hovers on the thin edge between reality and fantasy. Ultimately, the glorious music and touching stories win. So "Butterfly" will continue to be seduced and abandoned by a rotten guy. And bravas will continue to ring through the opera house for "Un bel di."

Seattle Opera's production, opening Jan. 12 at the Mercer Arts Arena, will feature Sherri Greenwald as Butterfly. Seattle audiences will recall her outstanding performances in the title role of Samuel Barber's "Vanessa" and her creation of the title role in "Florencia of the Amazon."

Recommended CDs feature Maria Callas (1955) or Renate Scotto (1966) as Butterfly.

Wayne Bloomingdale, a free-lance writer and music critic, is on the music faculties of Saint Martin's College and Pacific Lutheran University. He is music director at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Olympia.

'Madam Butterfly'

- When:Jan. 12, 13, 16, 18, 19, 20 23, 25 and 26.

- Where: Mercer Arts Arena, 321 Mercer St., Seattle.

- Tickets: $34-$107.

- Information: Call 206-389-7676 or 800-426-1619.

- Website:Seattle Opera

The Olympian Copyright 2001

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