By virtually any gauge, Giacomo Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” is a stalwart of the operatic repertoire.
Consider: During the past 10 years, it was presented more often in the United States than any other work, according to Opera America’s rankings.
But mere status as a popular classic does not assure the success of a production of “Butterfly” or any other opera. A revival must make listeners hear the music anew and encounter the well-known story in a fresh way. And that is precisely what Central City Opera achieves with its fine new production, which opened Saturday evening.
As this summer company often does so well, it has assembled a first-rate, well-integrated cast and paired it with an emotionally engaging and visually spectacular staging.
In her impressive debut as a stage director, Catherine Malfitano, a world-renowned soprano, maximizes the powerful drama of this cross-cultural opera and makes the audience reconsider the flaws and mistakes of both main characters.
It is all too easy to oversimplify this work and turn it into a kind of melodrama with a cardboard villain and victim. But Malfitano avoids such a trap by delving below the surface and revealing the complex humanity of this tragic love story.
Her only miscues come when she pushes too far, such as having the spurned geisha, Cio-Cio-San, wrap herself in the American flag as she commits suicide with a dagger – a gesture that only cheapens the scene’s effect.
Normally, only an allusion is made to her father, who died in similar fashion. But Malfitano gives him a physical presence, with an enactment of his death as a kind of prologue to the opera, and later visits by him as a ghostly apparition.
It is hard to see what is gained by inserting the father bodily into the production. If anything, he proves to be a distraction. Often, as is the case here, allusions that are made literal lose much of their expressive power.
Such missteps are easy to forgive given the success of so much else in this production, especially the breathtaking visual effects achieved by scenic designer Dany Lyne and lighting designer David Martin Jacques.
These include the colorful swirl of parasols in Act 1 and the intoxicating magic realism in Act 2, when flower petals fall from the sky as Cio-Cio-San prepares for what she thinks will be her husband’s happy return.
Unfortunately, the first part of Act 1 was marred Saturday by extras on stage struggling not so furtively for at least 10 minutes to properly position two panels of a paper screen on their sliding tracks. One hopes this was just an opening-night glitch.
Making her striking Central City debut in the demanding title role, soprano Maria Kanyova hardly could be more convincing with her appropriately youthful appearance and ability to convey the young wife’s innocence, vulnerability and pain.
Most important, she possesses a pure, forceful voice with a pleasing, soft edge – and she knows how to use it. That is especially clear in her commanding Act 2 aria, as she evocatively conveys Cio-Cio-San’s wistful longing for Pinkerton and firm belief in his return.
Providing a suitable match for Kanyova is tenor Gerard Powers, who is completely at home in the role of Navy Lt. B.F. Pinkerton. He not only looks the part, but his handsome, embracing voice is ideally suited to the role.
Also turning in effective performances were mezzo-soprano Mika Shigematsu as Suzuki and baritone Michael Corvino as Sharpless. His trio in Act 2, Part 2, with Kanyova and Powers, is the showstopper it should be.
Resident conductor John Baril did his usual capable job in the pit, leading a group of musicians from around the country.
Fine arts critic Kyle MacMillan can be reached at 303-820-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com.
“Madama Butterfly”
Central City Opera|Central City Opera House, 124 Eureka St., Central City; 2:30 p.m. Friday, Sunday and July 6, 8 p.m. July 8, 2:30 p.m. July 10 and 16, 8 p.m. July 19 and 21, 2:30 p.m. July 23, 2:30 and 8 p.m. July 26, 2:30 p.m. July 28 and 8 p.m. July 30.|$49-$89|303-292-6700 or 800-851-8175 or centralcityopera.org.
