The Australian

KATE CHERRY’S MADAMA BUTTERFLY: UNMISSABLE PUCCINI

Graham Strahle, November 18, 2019

Just when one thinks Puccini’s operas might have worn themselves hollow in their thinly concocted stories and cliched cultural depictions, along comes a production that wholly demolishes any such notion. Kate Cherry’s Madama Butterfly has shown before in New Zealand in 2013 and two years ago in Seattle, but not until now in Australia.

It is a production audiences in this country really need to know about. Showing a deep respect for the work itself and an eagle’s eye for the emotional truths it contains, the Adelaide-born director has lifted the lid right off the top of this opera.

The results are explosive. It comes from no single interpretative decision but rather a series of profound insights into what this work is about. On the surface, Madama Butterfly is a love story set in a clash of cultures — traditional Japan and imperial America. But it is also an opera about human fallibilities. Lieutenant Pinkerton’s crime is the monumental insensitivity he shows in marrying a 15-year-old geisha on a whim and then abandoning her, while her weakness is the blind trust she places in him.

Cherry draws these leading characters not as cultural stereotypes but as believable human beings as they hurtle towards inevitable tragedy. Led with sensational force and intensity by tenor Angus Wood and soprano Mariana Hong in the two respective lead roles, the tension is almost unbearable at times, and Puccini’s music is delivered with exceptional beauty by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra under noted Swedish conductor Tobias Ringborg.

The production has a cinematic look in its fast flow of action and vivid characterisation in each scene. This is thanks in large measure to designer Christina Smith, whose set consisting of sliding screens first depicts Pinkerton’s abode on the hillsides overlooking Nagasaki, before transforming into a cell that imprisons Butterfly. Gorgeous lighting by Matt Scott makes it all compelling to watch. Costumes give a subtle nod to traditional Japanese designs without descending into caricature. But it is the singing that particularly makes this one of the finest productions of Puccini you will ever see. The pairing of Wood and Hong is stellar. Douglas McNicol and Caitlin Cassidy are outstanding as Sharpless and Suzuki, and Pelham Andrews (as Bonze), Adam Goodburn (Goro) and Bethany Hill (Kate Pinkerton) add wonderful texture too. This is unmissable Puccini.

Tearing at the heartstrings, this stunning, sensitive production is the perfect ticket for opera novice and specialist alike.

In what has been a highly successful first year for Artistic Director Stuart Maunder, State Opera South Australia has chosen to end the season with a thematically appropriate double header in Gilbert & Sullivan’s cautionary comic if slightly offcolour The Mikado and Puccini’s greatest