Madama Butterfly

Celine Byrne and cast in Madama Butterfly. Image, Ros Kavanagh

*****

There’s a tedious tendency to present classic operas as political polemics. Costumed in modern military uniforms that speak to colonialism, fascism, or the latest troubled war zone. Suggesting an opera has become so dated it’s incapable of standing on its original two feet. A tendency Puccini's Madama Butterfly from 1904 has frequently succumbed to. Not so Irish National Opera's current production, co-produced with Scottish Opera, despite the temptation of low hanging fruit. American exceptionalism, inferior races, a 15-year-old girl taken sexual advantage of by an exploitive, older man; the polemic practically writes itself. But director Daisy Evans resists the obvious to get back to basics. Slow cooking the complex emotional richness of Puccini's tragic opera to release its full, sumptuous flavours. Delivering an intoxicatingly beautiful production that delivers a far more potent polemic as a result. Tapping into a rich vein already present in Puccini’s classic.

Ewan Gaster, Celine Byrne and Hyona Kim in Madama Butterfly. Image, Ros Kavanagh

Like turning a ship’s wheel one degree, Evan’s takes a whole new trajectory without appearing to have changed course. Making you realise what was always there, reclaimed to reveal the unbearable emotional intensity of Puccini’s music and Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica’s libretto. Unfolding the tale of Cio-Cio-San, a 15 year-old Japanese child bride abandoned by her heartless American husband, Pinkerton, with whom she has a child. Alienated, rejected by her people, she desperately waits his return. The action reframed to foreground Cio-Cio-San's nameless, relinquished son discovering the truth of his birth mother upon his father’s death. His adoptive mother, Kate, presenting him with a suitcase of memories so he can uncover the truth of his Japanese heritage. Kat Heath's sliding panels and satin screens, washed in Jake Wilshire’s pastel watercolours, shadowed silhouettes, or blushes of vigorous light evoking classic Japanese prints. Images frequently tempered by mists of dry ice or cherry blossom petals. Japanese culture encoded in Catherine Fay’s excellent costumes. A superlative, collective design framing rather than imposing itself over action and singing. The stage’s templed corridor endlessly reframing like the aperture of a camera lens, facilitating close-ups or deepening perspective through which the fated Butterfly’s story unfolds.

Madama Butterfly. Image, Ros Kavanagh

Symbolic foreshadowing in the opening image sees mezzo-soprano Imelda Drumm’s Kate, dressed like a German governess, cradling a teddy bear waving an American flag. As if the teddy bear was being claimed as American property. Throughout, her ghostly presence lingers, along with Sorrow, Cio-Cio-San’s son, who stalks the stage offering silent commentary as spectator and accuser. Repositioning Madama Butterly as a memory opera built from interlocking flashbacks. The final act sharing focus between Cio-Cio-San and an older man taking care to his child self. The effect rendering the eponymous heroine even more visible. Deepening the tragedy of a young girl who believes her romanticised ideals rather than life's lived experience. Madama Butterfly juxtaposing cynical and romanticised love in which the same expressions are given opposing meanings, each one false; one intentionally so, the other naïvely. The ever present Sorrow, for whom memory explodes illusions, tapping into Puccini’s luxuriant, emotional simplicity and elevating Madama Butterfly beyond an empty rhetoric of romantic despair. If not quite elevating its delusional heroine beyond naivety, it accords her greater dignity and, ultimately, agency.

Celine Byrne in Madama Butterfly. Image, Ros Kavanagh

All that being the tip of the tip of an emotionally expressive iceberg. Irish National Opera Orchestra, under conductor Fergus Shiel, allowing Puccini’s score to rise, sweep, tumble or draw breath, most notably during the vigil where the full heft of its wait is felt. Whether a fifteen minute seduction, the repetition of key musical phrases, or informing the final image Shiel never rushes the score, but savours its lush, emotional complexity. Against which singing visibly deepens in power and intensity as the action progresses. Tenor Otar Jorjikia as the duplicitous Pinkerton, baritone Iurii Samoilov as the moral conscience Sharpless, bass-baritone John Molloy as the patriarchal Bonze, and tenor Peter Van Hulle as glorified pimp Goro each mesmerising. As is mezzo-soprano Hyona Kim as maid Suzuki, who leaves you wishing for more. Satellites circling soprano Celine Byrne who is peerless as a vibrant Cio-Cio-San. From impressionable ingénue to passionate mother, Byrne infuses Cio-Cio-San with youthful intensity and openheartedness, and her singing is superb. Michael Mullen as the silent Sorrow, and a delightful Ewan Gaster as the younger Sorrow deepening the impact of the Butterfly’s tragedy.

Michael Mullen and Celine Byrne in Madama Butterfly. Image, Ros Kavanagh

Opera is an imperfect art form. Yet despite its melodramatic contrivances, at its core lies integrity and a heartfelt humanity. Lose that and what remains is stunning spectacle and beautiful sounds. In which songs, technically proficient, remain emotionally flaccid. Not so INO’s Madama Butterfly. From solos to duets, quartets to chorus, off stage singing to utter silence, Puccini’s conspiracy of emotional intensity undulates with new freshness. An opera for all time, Madama Butterfly is not to be missed. 

Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini, libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, presented by Irish National Opera in a co-production with Scottish Opera, in association with Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, runs at Bord Gáis Energy Theatre November, 4th, 6th and 8th.

For more information visit Irish National Opera or Bord Gáis Energy Theatre