Archive for May, 2007

Madama Butterfly

Saturday, May 5th, 2007

I just returned from a great production of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly at Opera San Jose. The set was new for this production — a spare black lacquer stage, with marvelous scrims as the backdrop, and good lighting.

The cast was strong, and fit the parts. In the first act, Isaac Hurtado played B.F. Pinkerton with an authentic slimy smirk on his face. He reminded me of George W. Bush.

The best part was the ending [plot spoiler].

Customarily, Butterfly blindfolds her son, Sorrow, and shoos him outside into the arms of Mrs. Pinkerton, with Pinkerton returning to find her dead.

In this production, she just turns her son loose after hoping that he will remember her.  Butterfly drops the knife during her suicide, and when Pinkerton runs in to find her, he cradles the lifeless torso with one hand, and then picks up the fallen blade.  The son returns, seeing his father brandishing the knife as he has stabbed her.  He turns and runs to Mrs. Pinkerton who has just entered and is horrified at witnessing an apparent murder.  As the two leave, tosses the knife aside.  The lights dim on a grief and guilt-ridden Pinkerton who has lost Butterfly, his son and his wife.

I find this a far more satisfying ending, with B.F. Pinkerton finally paying a price for his actions.