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More than two years after the curtain came down on “The Marriage of Figaro,” opera has finally returned in full throat to Blaisdell Concert Hall with Hawaii Opera Theatre’s production of “Madame Butterfly.”
Though it opened Friday, there are still two more stagings, today and Tuesday, of HOT’s lavish staging of the tragic Puccini masterpiece about the forlorn, teenage geisha, Cio-Cio-san, also known as Butterfly, who is sold as part of a “package deal” — wife, house and servants — to a wealthy, but flaky American naval officer, Pinkerton.
“Butterfly” has been a favorite in Hawaii since HOT made its debut as an opera company in 1961. HOT had hoped to stage it last year in celebration of its 60th year, but the pandemic delayed that plan.
This year’s production features a few firsts. The cast will be more racially consistent with the story, with singers of Asian ancestry playing the roles of the Japanese characters. While the opera is sung in Italian, another nod to the setting of the story in Japan is that the supertitles will be in English and Japanese.
Performing as Cio-Cio-san for the first time will be soprano Karen Chia-Ling Ho from Taiwan, making her HOT debut. Her character is a romantic at heart, falling for Pinkerton immediately, but Ho sees some maturity in her as well.
“She goes from a naive girl, but she changes from a 15-year-old, and then she becomes a wife, and then a mother,” Ho said. “And then she decides to let her child have a better life in America. … It’s sad, but also I can see motherhood, the love of the mother.”
Tenor John Pickle will play Pinkerton, and sees him not so much as a cad but as a “product of his upbringing.”
“He comes from a wealthy family, and he thinks he can buy whatever he wants,” Pickle said. “At the time, he’s not thinking about the damage he might cause down the line. … In this moment (in Act 1), he really thinks he’s going to be with her, especially once she’s shunned by her own people.”
At a rehearsal earlier this week, both singers were in fine form, with Ho’s powerful, pure vocals soaring in Cio-Cio-san’s most famous aria, “Un bel di vedremo” (“One fine day”) in Act 2. She sees Cio-Cio-san’s final aria “Tu? tu? tu?” (“You? you? you?”) as “very hard,” because of its emotion. “It builds up to the limit” of her abilities, she said.
She and Pickle were enchanting in the Act 1 love duet “Bimba, Bimba, non piangere” (“Sweetheart, sweetheart, do not weep”), a favorite of Pickle’s, along with the trio “Io so che alle sue pene,” (“I know her pain”) in Act 3, which occurs when Pinkerton sees his child for the first time.
“It’s this really emotional, heart-wrenching moment, that’s underscored by some of the most beautiful music in the show,” he said. “It’s a great juxtaposition.”
The opera features costumes by fashion designer Anne Namba, a frequent contributor to HOT productions. In an email, she said that in designing Cio-Cio-san’s silken, layered costume worn during the Act 1 love duet, she envisioned “a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis to expose a vulnerable and fragile girl,” whereas in Act II, when she prepares for Pinkerton’s return, “she is then transformed from the hardened, abandoned woman to the original butterfly by the layers of silk wings being added one at a time.”
Puccini’s magnificent score, which has hints of Asian music and quotes “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “Sakura,” will be conducted by Benjamin Makino. Gregory Keller is the director.
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HAWAII OPERA THEATRE PRESENTS ‘MADAME BUTTERFLY’
>> Where: Blaisdell Concert Hall
>> When: 4 p.m. today, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday
>> Cost: $30-$150
>> Info: hawaiiopera.org or 808-596-7858
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