Madama Butterfly
Madame Butterfly, by the Stichting Internationale Opera Producties.
Cast.
Agnieszka Piass as Madama Butterfly
Vasyl Grokholskiy as Pinkerton
Dorota Sobczak as Suzki (I think - I forgot the booklet at the theater)
Henk Poort as Sharpless.
Madama Butterfly is your typical Puccini Opera. It’s got interesting melody lines, interwoven with a lot of musical accompaniment. Let me start off by saying that I really enjoyed the night out. We had rather crappy seats although they were the most expensive available. On the other hand, we were alone in our row of seats so we could stretch our legs any way we wanted.
As a whole, the cast didn’t entirely convince. I most enjoyed Henk Poort’s incredible voice and Suzuki’s performance was near flawless. Miss Piass started off very strong and caught me from the very start. Unfortunately, she lost that attraction throughout the performance and by the end, she had dwindled down and couldn’t convince anymore. Mister Grokholsky never really convincing as Pinkerton. His voice didn’t have the roundness of Mister Poort’s and especially the louder parts didn’t sound as full as they could have been.
Don’t misunderstand me - to have such an international cast is wonderful and they certainly did not disappoint. It’s just that, after having heard wonderful renditions of Madama Butterfly on CD, I’ve been spoilt rotten with really really extraordinary renditions. And the cast of tonight was just plain extraordinary.
The costumes were very well done - not entirely oriental but very nices pieces of work nonetheless. The choreography was wonderful and worked very well, while the backdrop and the setup of the stage were simple but effective and very well done.
All in all a very good night out. Puccini is always a pleasure to listen to, even when the orchestra drops a little note here and there. Some people know how I adore the French Horn and there’s French Horn’s a plenty in this masterpiece. Definitely worth its money although one always hopes to catch a glimpse of a rough diamond instead of a very very well cut Cubic Zirkonia.
Verdict: 7/10
As an afterthought: I think the average age of the audience was about 60. Which makes me wonder if we’ll still have large-scale opera’s in 20 years. That and the fact that it’s still incredible that old men and women think they can just bump into you and then give you the evil eye as if YOU are the one that bumped into them - well, that, and skipping ahead in the line to the coffee-and-tea bar - and bumping into people who just got coffee, thereby spilling that person’s coffee and not even apologising. When I was young, the elder were a lot nicer.
