Madama Butterfly - theatre review

Open air theatre is asking for trouble, right?  Certainly, the weather when I attended tested the commitment of audience and performers alike, with near constant rain from start to finish.  Aside from a minor delay and a brief interruption, the show trucked on and the audience stuck with it.  A lesser production may not have rewarded one's tenacity, but in this case it proved well worth it.

The ginormous stage was well utilised, with the outdoor wedding of Act I recognisable as one of today's many outdoor weddings.  The use of cranes, cars and fireworks further justified the outdoor space.

The action of Act I includes a lot of exposition and has the potential to drag, but Georgy Vasiliev, as our Pinkerton, has charisma enough to maintain my attention till our Butterfly enters.  And then it became tough to watch anyone else.  I'm grateful that Puccini does not allow her to leave the stage again.  The story is truly hers and Hiromi Omura does her story justice.  Omura is sublime to watch and fully believable in her journey from young blushing bride through devoted lover to desperate mother.

The supporting characters and chorus are uniformly excellent, such that I found myself fully absorbed in the world of Butterfly.

Perhaps the hardest thing to get right in this opera is the part of Butterfly's young son.  It is not easy to find a toddler who can act, so the child playing the part usually looks too old and is given very little to do.  I applaud this production for trusting their young actors with a fair amount of activity.  His plight was truly affecting.  

See this for an experience exquisite enough to lift one out of the adverse weather conditions and take one to a new world of heartbreak and sumptuous music.