This nonspeaking minor character is typically played by a cute child in a sailor suit. It is, after all very unpleasant but there was no lyricism in this production to counteract the brutality.In the aisles and lobbies during the second intermission of the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly,” which opened the season on Monday night before a star-studded audience, patrons could be overheard heatedly debating the puppet used to portray Butterfly’s little boy. Maybe it is the opera that I do not like.
It lacks any sort of intimacy with the singers standing as far from each other as possible as though someone is suffering from a bad attack of halitosis. It takes place on a dark, empty stage lit by a few lanterns. I was particularly disappointed by the Act I love scene between Pinkerton and Butterfly. It is very colourful and, in fact, looks more like a Broadway musical than an opera. Apart from the puppet, Minghella's production is unremarkable. The orchestra is ploddingly conducted by Patrick Summers. This opera can sometimes be rescued by decent performances in the minor roles but both Dwayne Croft as Sharpless and Maria Zifchak as Suzuki are unconvincing. Patricia Racette is perhaps the wrong side of 40 to convince as a 15-year-old geisha and Marcello Giordani is a wobbly Pinkerton, both physically and vocally. Well, so much for the doll, what about the opera? This has been a star-studded Met season but I got the impression that on this particular afternoon they were fielding the B-team. When the doll was happy he was beaming, when the doll was sad he was downcast. The puppeteers are dressed in black with gauze covering their faces but I loved the fact that you could see the face of the man operating the doll's head. He is controlled by three puppeteers, one for his head, one for his arms and one for his feet. From the moment the child er puppet walks on stage in the middle of the second act I could not concentrate on anything else. It sounded like a silly idea on paper.Now, seeing this production from the Met I was totally knocked out by it. When Anthony Minghela's production of Madama Butterfly premiered in London I was intrigued to read that it featured a life-size puppet as Butterfly's son.
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