Review: Madama Butterfly

Civic Theatre, Auckland

Review: Heath Lees

In an inspired moment, director Robert Chevara makes the brash American Lieutenant Pinkerton stand behind Cio-Cio San, his shy Japanese bride, and spread her arms wide. Suddenly, her kimono forms the impression of a dead butterfly, pinned to a collector's board. The whole story in a single image.

Madama Butterfly is the first offering by the new NBR New Zealand Opera Company. Sets and costumes have already been aired in Christchurch and Wellington, but the singers and creative team are new for the Auckland season.

Critics in the south said the production was lacklustre. Certainly, it is extremely traditional in its approach, and Philip Markham's stage setting, for all its willowy and sharply etched Japanese effect, is disappointingly unvaried, leaving the main changes to the lighting of the cyclorama.

Still, the staging gets a lift from the refurbished Civic Theatre, whose exotic surroundings - Eastern but hardly Japanese - add flavour.

So does the occasional, kitsch effect of the starlit ceiling, which made the cheaper seats in the balcony worthwhile, even if it went entirely over the heads of those in the stalls. And the opening documentary-film sequences of life in Japan were a striking blend of stage and cinematic technology.

As for the vexed question of the sound, it was at best only reasonable, with discreet electronic enhancement providing a careful balance between orchestra and singers and some added projection, but alas no "bloom."

Otherwise, there is much to enjoy musically. Patricia Wright sings the title role with a lovely overall sense of light and shade, yet draws out vital touches, like the ambiguous colour she invests on her words "I am so happy" while the plaintive solo oboe clearly contradicts her. Her showpiece aria, Un bel di, is lyrical rather than visionary, and her Butterfly is fragile and sinned against, though never quite achieves tragic dignity.

John Daszek brings a warm and powerful tenor voice to the role of Pinkerton. In act one, his ability to suggest musical involvement yet emotional distance was exactly right, as was Barry Mora's portrayal of Sharpless, the sympathetic but helpless US Consul.

Adrian McEniery's Goro was nicely sung but not wily enough. Special praise, though, for Virginia-Marie Stack, who turned in an excellent performance as Suzuki.

Conductor Marco Zambelli brings out aspects of the score that make it sound fresh, and the Auckland Philharmonia play with feeling.