The Opera Tattler

Reviews of Performances and their Audiences

Recent posts

SF Opera’s Madama Butterfly

Sfopera-butterfly-actii * Notes *
Harold Prince’s production of Madama Butterfly opened last night at San Francisco Opera. The revolving set, designed by Clarke Dunham, is pretty enough. Though not terribly elegant, it is sure to delight most. The transitions were fluid. Director José Maria Condemi certainly was presented a challenge of getting people on, off, and around this set.

Maestro Luisotti conducted the orchestra with verve, the playing was sweeping and painterly. The chorus also made strong contributions, and received the only ovation during the music, after the Humming Chorus. Both the Adlers looked and sounded appropriate for Kate Pinkerton (Sara Gartland) and Prince Yamadori (Austin Kness). Christian Van Horn was intimidating as the Bonze. Quinn Kelsey was a tender, kind Sharpless, his voice is rich and strong. Thomas Glenn (Goro) was foppish but also oozed unctuousness. His voice is light but always audible. Daveda Karanas (Suzuki) has a powerful, yet lovely voice. Her notes floated over the orchestra with ease.

Our leads were perhaps less appealing. Stefano Secco was not the least bit dashing as Pinkerton, though his singing was perfectly fine. His volume is good, there is richness in his lower register, but he is not exciting. In the title role, the petite Svetla Vassileva looked comely, at least when she was still. Her gestures were distressing, as if she was having convulsions limited just to her hands. When she noticed that her hair became accidently unbundled in Act II, she was unable to keep in character. Worse yet, her voice could be shrill and her intonation was imperfect. She did pull it together for “Un bel dì,” and only one phrase was really off in pitch. Her timbre can be pleasant, with nice resonances in her chest voice, but she was a bit too hearty to be a vulnerable young girl.

* Tattling * 
There was light talking during the music, but I did not hear any watch alarms. I did have a seat in the Orchestra Ring, as I volunteered in the gift shop, however, I found I was more comfortable in standing room.

A medical emergency occurred on the north side of the Premium Orchestra seating during the transition between Acts II and III. Many people stood up in the aisle to either help or to get out of the way. A nurse was called in, as was the house manager. The ailing person in question was taken out in a wheelchair.

Posted in , , ,

36 responses to “SF Opera’s Madama Butterfly”

  1. EBrown Avatar
    EBrown

    Last night’s performance was an excellent example of the practice of pinning butterflies to a board leaving the fragile insects dead and desiccated. The production was an embarrassment with clichéd bits of Japanese culture pasted on in the hope that the audience might be fixed into thinking the opera was set in Japan. The set was one of the ugliest bit of carpentry it has been my misfortune to witness. It looked like a tacky resin souvenir. The only production of recent memory that could be worse was the Roaring Twenties Traviata.
    All this might have been forgiven if the singing had been better, but unfortunately this was not the case. Vassileva’s shrillness made me actually wince with pain. And I was never quite sure which key the next note was to be sung in; in this I was joined, I think, by Vassileva herself. As for her “acting,”I do not know what role she was playing with her
    grandiosity and coquettishness, but it was not the gentle and fragile Cio Cio San. Thevrest of the cast was merely adequate.
    I was fortunate to have seen Santa Fe Opera’s “Butterfly” this summer and also the divine Patricia Racette here in San Francisco. I will co to sleep tonight hoping that those two exquisite performances will erase this evening from my memory.
    The Set! Oh! The horror! The horror!

    Like

    Reply
  2. The Opera Tattler Avatar
    The Opera Tattler

    While I agree with you that the set is a bit inelegant, like the insides of a snowglobe, I felt that fit the opera.
    Vassileva was disappointing both vocally and dramatically. She made me miss Racette too.

    Like

    Reply
  3. patty Avatar
    patty

    My quick and unnecessary thoughts:
    I enjoyed the set & the direction. I didn’t enjoy the vibrato of Butterfly, nor the intonation and shrillness.
    I DID think the moon at the end of the first act looked like a panda looking down on them. (Maybe in honor of the Giants and Pablo? Hmmm.)
    Did anyone else hear some sort of electronic noise toward the end of the second act?
    I was caught off guard by the two acts rather than three, but I guess it’s sometimes done that way, eh? (I seem to recall the Met did this too?) Thus, up in the dress circle, people weren’t sure about applauding after the humming chorus and it was sort of uncomfortable.
    I really enjoyed Sharpless’s voice, but you’re right; he wasn’t exactly dashing! Ah well, when one is poor and needs to be rescued one’ll take anything, right? 😉
    But most importantly (!) the orchestra sounded fabulous. 🙂

    Like

    Reply
  4. The Opera Tattler Avatar
    The Opera Tattler

    I like Acts II and III together, we wait with Butterfly and the dramatic tension doesn’t let up. Secco has a reliable and fairly pleasant voice, he sounded much more comfortable singing this than Faust. I was most interested in the orchestra, and I don’t think I could have heard this twice in four days if it weren’t for Luisotti’s conducting.

    Like

    Reply
  5. John Marcher Avatar
    John Marcher

    We were seated in row S of the orchestra and heard an entirely different orchestra than you and Patty did.
    OT, you are being kinder than this debacle merits.

    Like

    Reply
  6. The Opera Tattler Avatar
    The Opera Tattler

    I think at least part of it is that I don’t care for Butterfly, and don’t have strong expectations for what the orchestra should sound like, besides in tune and together.
    Luisotti’s rubato is often surprising, and it keeps my interest. The orchestra sounded supple and flowing rather than lax to me.
    The most mind-boggling thing to me is that Gockley claims that the voice is primary, so how is it that we got this soprano in the title role?

    Like

    Reply
  7. John Marcher Avatar
    John Marcher

    A very good question indeed regarding this soprano.
    Your lack of appreciation for Butterfly must account for your ability to call it rubato, while my fondness for it deems it a mess.

    Like

    Reply
  8. patty Avatar
    patty

    I actually do like the combining of Acts 2 & 3, but was it explained at all (I didn’t make it to the lecture before)? In the program it just lists it all as Act 2, so I was wondering if my memory of the thing (I’ve played it a few times) was totally off!
    What can I say, John? I guess I don’t have a discerning ear. I though the principal oboe sounded great. (Oboe is what matters … right?)

    Like

    Reply
  9. John Marcher Avatar
    John Marcher

    Patty, I’m certain your ears are more discerning than mine. And of course it is all about the oboe!

    Like

    Reply
  10. The Last Chinese Unicorn Avatar
    The Last Chinese Unicorn

    EBrown, you read my mind! I completely agree. “The horror! The horror!” is exactly what I said after seeing the production. But-tah-fly, she dead.

    Like

    Reply
  11. The Opera Tattler Avatar
    The Opera Tattler

    The program notes do treat the opera like it is two acts, I guess there was an original two act version and then a subsequent (standard) three act version.
    The oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and trumpet were all especially great, I thought.

    Like

    Reply
  12. Robin Avatar
    Robin

    Chinese Unicorn…..you are spot-on! I chose (wisely) to stay below in the canteen with the chorus when they weren’t on stage. I usually like “Butterfly”.. but this one is just awful….EXCEPT for the Chorus and Orchestra…. Maestro Nikki led them beautifully and passionately. Loved Quinn…..supporting cast ok…..”principals”…..yuck! (Oh, and love the two Acts….I agree with you…we should be standing and waiting through the night…but – alas, not with this Buttefly….she should have embraced Pinkerton and killed them both!)
    Hope to see you at one of the “Cyranos”!
    ♥ Robin ♥

    Like

    Reply
  13. The Opera Tattler Avatar
    The Opera Tattler

    Somehow I have to say I enjoyed this Butterfly more than the last one as far as the orchestra.
    Hope to see you soon, Robin!

    Like

    Reply
  14. patty Avatar
    patty

    Whew, John, I’m so glad you know about that oboe thing. Not everyone does. (Silly people.) I suppose someone needs to write a book and educate the world.

    Like

    Reply
  15. Hank Avatar
    Hank

    Caveat: Butterfly is NOT my favorite opera. Or my favorite Puccini. Or my favorite Puccini from the year 1904.
    Even as a young budding opera aficionado, some time during a previous geologic era, I thought the music sounded stupid–a poor attempt on the part of a western composer to write something ‘Japanese’.
    I also think the story is stupid. The woman is either a total idiot or certifiably wacko.
    The only other way to interpret the opera is as a racist portrayal of ‘quaint’ Japanese people unable to deal with the complications of dealing with the wider world.
    I am not Japanese, nor do I know many Japanese people. But I did at one time work with a man who was of Japanese descent, and also an opera lover, and he did, indeed, think this opera was racist.
    Amazing to me that it should be performed so often here in a city with a significant Japanese population.
    (more to come)
    Hank

    Like

    Reply
  16. Hank Avatar
    Hank

    The performance:
    I agree Sharpless was the best singer, and maybe the best actor.
    I did like the voice of the Pinkerton, although he did not act in any appreciable way, and he had a couple of vocal miscalculations.
    The Butterfly did not sing brilliantly, although I don’t mind a little sliding around in my Puccini, so it didn’t irritate me as much as it would have, say, in a Mozart work.
    I noticed the shrillness in her voice, but again, within limits, that doesn’t bother me. In fact, I even used to enjoy Gwyneth Jones at times.
    Sets were stupid and busy. Still, a step up from the grade-school quality of Aida sets.
    Two acts works with this opera. I think a brake right before a really short final act is frequently more of a distraction than anything else. Tosca and Boheme can both be done as two act operas, in my ‘umble hopinion, without any loss of dramatic power.
    (tattling to come)

    Like

    Reply
  17. Hank Avatar
    Hank

    Tattling:
    There was an event in the Intermezzo Lounge on the box level before the opera, and during act one the workers were breaking down the set up, creating very distracting noise that could be heard on the house left side of the orchestra, and that kept going on.
    George W., the head usher, had to go up twice to tell them to stop, and then there was still more noise afterward.
    I’ve heard this kind of thing from the box level before, but never this bad or for this long. I wonder if the people in the box seats can hear this?
    Hank

    Like

    Reply
  18. cedric Avatar
    cedric

    The coquettish hand movements may be the responsibility of the director: one of these Noh theater inspired stage directions to go with the set. Puccini left no cliche unturned, so why shouldn’t Condemi?
    I’m not as harsh on the principals as you are. Secco happily surprised me after the underwhelming Faust. Butterfly started off wrong (way off pitch in the off stage act I entrance), but righted the boat a bit.

    Like

    Reply
  19. The Opera Tattler Avatar
    The Opera Tattler

    It certainly is an example of orientalism, but so are Carmen, Aida, and many other operas. For some reason Butterfly bothers me quite a bit though. But it is one of the most performed operas, and people do adore it.

    Like

    Reply
  20. The Opera Tattler Avatar
    The Opera Tattler

    It is true that the intonation is not as big of an issue in Puccini!

    Like

    Reply
  21. The Opera Tattler Avatar
    The Opera Tattler

    I noticed that noise too (from orchestra standing room), but I couldn’t tell what was going on, so thanks for tattling.

    Like

    Reply
  22. The Opera Tattler Avatar
    The Opera Tattler

    Agreed, it may well have been the director as far as the hand movements. I just wasn’t convinced though, and that she got flustered by her hair bothered me a lot, it was not professional. (I suppose the only reason I noticed was because I had seen the dress over the weekend.)

    Like

    Reply
  23. Hank Avatar
    Hank

    Just looked at the media roundup page… deservedly dismal reviews all ’round.
    And they are doing TWELVE of these! They’re likely to be giving tickets away by the end!
    There will be a new Butterfly at some point, though, and that might liven things up.
    Hank

    Like

    Reply
  24. EBrown Avatar
    EBrown

    Tattling for opening night: only one watch alarm went off which was quickly silenced by the owner. Two people behind me were speaking loudly in Russian but grew quiet as Act I was well underway. Perhaps they were stunned by the hideous set.

    Like

    Reply
  25. AKA Avatar
    AKA

    Just walked out of tonight’s MB and I have to say that this confirms that my season tickets and sizable contribution were a complete waste of entertainment dollars. There was virtually nothing about this production to admire. Lusotti must be deaf or listens to his his iPod at ear shattering levels. He only knows two levels, f and fff. Volume does not substitute well for vibrancy. The set design made good use of levels and the transitions between setting were rendered fluid by the rotating stage. However, aesthetically the set design was a disaster. The singing? What singing? Vassileva was as far from an innocent teenager as one could get. Although Secco could hit the notes, so could a sampled set of voices on my laptop. No chemistry, no artistry….just nothing. I will attend the last two opera only because I’ve already purchased the season, but unless a well reviewed Mozart opera comes to town, I will not support this shoddy, incompetent company again!

    Like

    Reply
  26. Roberto Avatar
    Roberto

    This is from the 10/26 performance.
    They booed Stefano Secco! They finally booed him! I don’t know if the boo was for the character, the singer or both. I hope it was for the singer or both. It was about time. I saw him on the Requiem, Faust and on this Butterfly. His high-pitched tenor annoyed me so much that I wished I had a Dolby system in my ears to suppress his hiss. This is a singer that doesn’t need to return.
    Svetla Vassileva is an Eastern European soprano that portrayed a mid-teenager Japanese geisha singing in Italian. It would be funny if it wasn’t exactly what we got. She just couldn’t rest her arms for 3 seconds. Every word required a movement on her arms. Either she needed to stretch them, or raise up or drop down. If she is anxious about something, she should try Xanax, Paxil or another one of these drugs. If she was bad as an actress, her singing was even worse. I just couldn’t find any quality on her singing. I have no idea why she sings this role.
    I am not asking for a convincing Cio-Cio-San because I accept the fact that it will never happen (at least on stage). Vassileva couldn’t be more unconvincing. She broke the record on that regards. But somehow they didn’t boo her. They even liked her! Go figure…
    I don’t know why conductors don’t follow Karajan’s trend on Puccini to slow down a little bit the crescendos. In my opinion, Karajan’s success with Puccini is due to the fact that he sustained the crescendos until the last breath, increasing the tension and adding a new dimension to the drama. (He also had Freni and Pavarotti, but that is something else). Nicola Luisotti tempos are faster than Karajan’s and about the same as other conductors. Since I have Karajan as a reference, I was a little bit disappointed. But I don’t blame Luisotti. After all, he could not have saved the night. Balance singers-orchestra could have been better, but it was not bad.
    I remember when Patricia Racette sang this role about 3 years ago. It was a warm and bright December night. I will never forget when I walked out from the War Memorial. I saw that stellar sky and felt that the night belonged to Patricia Racette. She owned that sky. I felt so light that I was there floating too. The whole city of San Francisco was floating.
    Tonight is also a warm and bright night. I left the War Memorial and the sky was as stellar as that December night. At this time, when I left the War Memorial, I just wanted to get out of there.
    Next time that Gockley brings Butterfly here, he should have a reason. Who in the world can sing Cio-Cio-San? Maybe Sondra Radvanovsky could give it a try?
    Thumbs down for this one.

    Like

    Reply
  27. The Opera Tattler Avatar
    The Opera Tattler

    I don’t blame you for walking out of this performance, the leads are disappointing. I did like Luisotti’s conducting, though he does create a lot of volume, that’s true.
    So far I’ve enjoyed Werther, Figaro, and Cyrano, though there were different problems with all of these. Maybe after I hear Cyrano a few more times I will have a real opinion about the music. I have high hopes for Makropulos and the Ring.

    Like

    Reply
  28. The Opera Tattler Avatar
    The Opera Tattler

    I’m certain they booed Secco for his character rather than his singing. They always boo Pinkerton, regardless of who sings.
    I admit though I am not always fond of Racette, she can be great in this role. We definitely missed her this time around.

    Like

    Reply
  29. Marianne Killy Avatar
    Marianne Killy

    Wow. The only thing I feel like critiquing are the comments. If you didn’t see the good in this production and performance, I think you have all overtrained your perhaps senile eyes into seeing only whats wrong with an opera. I don’t think you critique because you love opera done well, you critique because you love the sound of your own voice, (then try being a singer, eh!). I saw MB last night and I loved it. I thought it was a thrilling tour de force. I thought Vassileva showed amazing comitment to character. I loved her movements I thought they made her seem ‘japonesque.’ Which is perfect for the opera. What’s with all this ‘she didn’t sound like a teenager’ crap. The role is written to be sustained over a fairly substantial orhestra, anyone who can handle the role is going to sound more womanly than girly and its very hard on the voice, so the soprano might not always sound so pretty. I’d take a Callas over a Tebaldi anyday, certainly in a Puccini opera. I noticed Vassileva was a little off on her entrance. Yeah. So. She has problems there. Everyone heard it, but it didn’t ruin the show. I expect Butterfly to sound a little squally, and then, when she’s not I’m pleasantly suprised. I don’t think beauty of tone is the absolute most important aspect of the role. Why does Pinkerton have to sound sexy isn’t that just one interpretation?I kind of liked him as bland, it made sense. You know, he’s just sort of a thoughtless male. He is a foil to BUTTERFLY’s passion. Really? the set was that bad? I liked it. I liked the detail. I loved the slant of the weeping cherry tree. Bleh, all you old rich farts, its hard to breath around you. All right fine, perhaps some of you are young farts and perhaps some of you haven’t inherited your money yet.

    Like

    Reply
  30. Roberto Avatar
    Roberto

    Marianne,
    Where is my inheritance? Am I getting something? From who? Maybe I would like this opera more if I had my inheritance… :-)))

    Like

    Reply
  31. leslie landberg Avatar
    leslie landberg

    I am new to this site and I am an opera singer, so attend regularly with great interest. I was disappointed with the Butterfly, which I saw on the same night as the reviewer and want to let anyone who cares to, be reminded that a much better singer has been scheduled to do half of the principal singer’s role – the Genovese soprano Daniella Dessi, whom I would bet will hit it out of the park – or at least do a vastly more creditable job of the role than the woman we heard on this particular night.
    BTW, for those of you who weren’t over-fond of Luisotti’s interpretation, he, too, is slated to perform only half of the dozen perfs of this production. The other half will be conducted by one Julian Kovatchev.
    The problem with the Bulgarian singer who stuffed her rather gigantic tootsies into the tiny sandles of Cio-Cio-San was for me the largest (no pun intended) disappointment of the evening. Though she tried her best, it was clear from the very beginning that the demands of the role were too much for her medium-sized instrument. Fatigue robbed her of most of her mid-range and low notes, which were unsupported and often barely audible. At times there was simply nothing there at all but air passing over frozen chords.
    What made matters worse was her complete lack of knowledge in the subject of stage movement, which underscored the actresses lack of meaningful understanding to her character’s inner life and the society into which she is born.
    This inability to move correctly on the stage, in particularl, seems to be particularly common among the Bulgarians and Romanians. They literally walk and move like peasants. They galumph. Which is great for Girl of the Golden West or Santuzza, but bad for Triaviata and Butterfly. Their arms are often held out stiffly in front of them in a buffoonish fashion that they imagine is dramatic. Can’t somebody (oh, I don’t know – say a stage director – rolling my eyes as I type this….) STOP THEM??? Gah.
    In the case of our galumphing Butterfly, she should never, ever do anything other than artfully mince. As we know, Butterfly is from a very good family. And she has been rigorously schooled to be a geisha, in addition. It is completely wrong to allow her to galumph about the stage. At this period, the entire social fabric of Japanese society would have been rent asunder if a woman of her social class ever walked any other way, under any circumstances.
    This is verismo – great care must be taken (despite the score’s Euro-chauvinistic propensities) to depict this culture as it was – and it was very, very rigid.
    And for Butterfly’s gestures, while at times formal, they should always remain dainty and fluid. Miss Vassilyeva’s gestures made her at times appear demented and at other times I was looking for the strings that made her look like a giant marionette. If any of this was the stage director’s doing, as was suggested by one of the commentators, he needs to be taken behind the theater and kindly put out of his misery, like an old horse with a bad leg.
    Some have commented that they are uncomfortable with the basic premise of the character of Butterly and the choices she makes. I wish to point out that Cio-Cio-San is the product of her time as well as a very naive 15 year old girl with emotional issues and virtually no support system other than the helpless servant Suzuki. To say that she has low self esteem would be to understate the situation.
    Anyone who is familiar with the Broadway adaptation Miss Saigon may be able to better understand her – though if I recall they’ve made her Vietnamese counterpart into a fallen woman, so it’s not a completely parallel character.
    As an actor, I want to say I find Butterfly to be completely believable, consistent with her time and place and heartbreakingly tragic. In addition, the libretto strikes me as being supple, economical and rich. Which is why she is one of my favorite roles.
    A lot of details that could have been used to build a three-dimentional portrait of Butterfly were missed.
    For instance, when she says “I am fifteen. I am so old” she isn’t making a joke, she means it. She is over the hill in a society that devalues and objectifies women. That Pinkerton et al. take it to be a joke and tease her about her “pleasent pastimes” is sickening, or meant to be. But in this production the lines are taken without subtext, at face value.
    That the director and leading lady missed details such as this is incomprehensible to me. It leaves me wondering exactly what the standards are in the profession that I am seeking to gain entrance to. They don’t seem to be very high.
    Finally, I want to say that I loved the revolving set and it’s rough-hewn character more and more as the night wore on. My favorite part was the depiction of dusk until dawn as Butterfly waits in vain for Pinkerton. It was utterly poetic and took my breath away. It did upstage the players a bit, but all would have been well had the players been sharper. I look forward to the Genovese to make all things right and encourage ya’ll to take a second look at this production with its rightful star and conductor before you condemn it completely.
    Oh, and didn’t you love the costumes? Harold Prince deserves a round of applause for putting this production together. I thought it showed a lot of thoughtfulness and, though the set bore an unfortunate resemblance to a resin decoration, blah-blah-blah, I still liked it very much for its originality and gutsiness.

    Like

    Reply
  32. The Opera Tattler Avatar
    The Opera Tattler

    Perhaps we are fuddy-duddies!

    Like

    Reply
  33. The Opera Tattler Avatar
    The Opera Tattler

    Thanks so much for your comments. Yes, you are right about the costumes, they were perfectly lovely.

    Like

    Reply
  34. Laurie Avatar
    Laurie

    Well, I can’t comment on the whole production as I walked out during the intermission. I thought to cut my losses and go home and watch Beverly Hills Chihuahua instead.

    Like

    Reply
  35. Greg Avatar
    Greg

    Like the geico geco said
    I would hate to be “Hank”
    This “Hank” must go to the Opera alone or at best with a very unhappy guest.
    All the shows virtually sold out.
    So sad that all those stupid people were happy. If only they could have shared Hank’s wisdom and insight they would not have so stupidly enjoyed themselves.
    Hank, you are going to die someday…..will the world be a happier place at the end of that day? I am not rooting against you Hank, just trying to make you think…about more than what you wrote about…..You Are Missing The Point…..good luck dear hank.

    Like

    Reply
  36. The Opera Tattler Avatar
    The Opera Tattler

    Sometimes it is just the best thing to do.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a reply to John Marcher Cancel reply