by Giacomo Puccini
Directed by Brian Macdonald
A Canadian Opera Production
at the Four Seasons Centre
September 26, 29, 30
October 8, 10, 14, 16, 18, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31
November 3, 2009

   Puccini’s classic opera never fails to be moving because it tells a great romantic tragedy underscored by political corruption. Cio-Cio-San is, of course, the great Japanese victim of unrequited love for Pinkerton, a nefarious American naval lieutenant who heartlessly contrives to exploit her vulnerability. Brian Macdonald’s excellent production emphasizes the psycho-political significance of the tale, exposing through the clarity of David Pomeroy’s Pinkerton and James Westman’s Sharpless how the West can often violate the values of an Eastern culture with a sort of scorched earth recklessness. Puccini’s libretto foreshadows the tragedy by using language that signals fragility and shifting shapes—a point that designer Susan Benson seizes on for her simple set of wooden platforms and delicate paper screens that slide or glide into variable configurations and catching Michael J. Whitfield’s subtle lighting in impressionistic patterns. Conductor Carlo Montanaro captures the score’s mutability as his orchestra moves from a frantic first theme to a darting, glittering flutter of strings and then to an ominously measured slower tempo of cello and basses capped by thudding drums that bring on the tragedy like lowering dark clouds. 

   The orchestra does tend to dominate the action early in Act 1, leaving the singers to sound remote until they warm up gradually to Puccini’s tragic grandeur. The supporting players are fine: American tenor Stephen Cole gives weight and a sweet-sour texture to Goro, the obsequious marriage broker; Peter Barrett’s Prince Yamadori (whom Butterfly rejects wrongly) is heavily pompous; Canadian mezzo-soprano Allyson McHardy delivers a Suzuki (Butterfly’s servant) who is compassionate and sensitive, and whose acting and singing are effortlessly simple but effective. James Westman makes a weightily conflicted Sharpless, at first complicit with Pinkerton and then plagued by conscience. A fine group, headed spectacularly by David Pomeroy’s duplicitous Pinkerton, whose powerful tenor voice has colour to match the singer’s dangerously attractive personality. Without ever losing his manly appeal, Pomeroy (a Newfoundland native) has swagger, confidence, ruthlessness, and then guilt, powering through the top notes and lowering his tone for the love scenes.

   But every Madama Butterfly depends on its Cio-Cio-San for ultimate effect, and in this production Romanian soprano Adina Nitescu, though never looking or attempting to act fifteen, has a voice that can suggest a sob, a terrible despairing scream, or delicate gentleness. She is full of feeling, whether renouncing her Japanese faith in forefathers (“Leri son salita”), responding to Pinkerton in a love duet, and, of course, finally breaking in the tragic events of Act 3. Susan Benson costumes her in restrained pastel shades of orange or pink, allowing her to emerge like a gentle flower or butterfly from the surrounding soft greys of the ensemble, but Nitescu hardly needs this sort of help to fashion her most affecting portrayal. She combines vocal artistry with superb gradations of acting texture, and, with the indubitable help of director Macdonald, produces one of the finest Cio-Cio-Sans of our time.