BWW Reviews: Kristine Opolais' BUTTERFLY Spreads Its Glorious Wings at the Met

By this time in the Met's season, audiences can be a little "been there, done that"--but not when it came to Latvian soprano Kristine Opolais, singing the title role in Puccini's MADAMA BUTTERFLY for the first time in New York. They nearly stormed the stage when she came out for her curtain call, and with good reason. She was spectacular.

Anthony Minghella's production of BUTTERFLY may be the best show of the Gelb regime in the Metropolitan Opera's repertoire. Its simple yet striking sets by Michael Levine, dazzling costumes by Han Feng and effective lighting by Peter Mumford all fall into place under Carolyn Choa's direction and choreography. With the right soprano in the title role (known as Cio-Cio-San), it's pretty much unstoppable. And Opolais is definitely that singer. She may not look 15 (the title character's age at the start of the opera), but she has every other requirement of a great Butterfly: the voice, the beauty and the art.

Multi-textured soprano

The colors of her multi-textured soprano soared with ease over heavy orchestrations and the Met orchestra under Marco Armiliato (something her co-star, tenor James Valenti, as Lt. BF Pinkerton, could not). Opolais has clearly gotten the character under her skin. Her performance is so expressive, so understanding, so loving toward the characters close to her, including Suzuki, her maid (a lovely performance by mezzo Maria Zifchak) and the man who has abandoned her. She somehow managed to make a warhorse like "Un bel di" sound fresh and as real for the audience as it was for her character.

Even her interactions with her child were completely believable--no easy trick, because in this production, "he" is played by a Japanese-style puppet rather than a cute little tow-head, as is usually the case. (The three black-clad puppeteers, Kevin Augustine, Tom Lee and Marc Petrosino, did an awesome job of bringing the child to life.) She continued to treat the puppet as if it were real into the curtain calls.

Difficult to love

Despite its popularity, as one of the backbones of the standard repertoire at the world's great opera houses, and its plethora of gorgeous music, BUTTERFLY is a somewhat difficult opera to love. Butterfly comes as part of the package with the house Pinkerton is renting and then (with apologies to another Puccini opera), the teenaged geisha is "sola, perduta, abbandonata" ("alone, lost and abandoned")--not to mention pregnant--by him. And that's not the worst of her trials: He comes to claim their child, with his American wife at his side. Finally, Butterfly commits suicide.

The rest of the fine cast helped bring the sad story to its inevitable conclusion, particularly baritone Dwayne Croft, as the US Consul Sharpless, who was touching and in excellent voice, caught in the middle between the caddish Pinkerton and his naïve young bride. Bass Stefan Szkafarowsky as the Bonze (Butterfy's uncle), bass baritone Jeongcheol Cha, as Yamadori, a suitor and tenor Scott Scully as Goro, the marriage broker all did well. (Even tenor Valenti improved by his big aria, "Addio, fiorito asil," in the final scene of the opera.) Bravos also go to dancers Hsin Ping Chang and James Graber for their evocative work.

By this time, Opolais' "double-header"--opening in BUTTERFLY on a Friday night then pinch-hitting as Mimi in LA BOHEME for the HD broadcast the following afternoon--has become legend. I look forward to hearing her again, soon (more BOHEMEs next year and MANON LESCAUT after that). But please, Mr. Gelb, she's an opera singer, not Babe Ruth.

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Photo: Soprano Kristine Opolais as Cio-Cio-San in Puccini's MADAMA BUTTERFLY, with her child.

Photo by Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera

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