A small woman in a red kimono weeps on the floor, a naval officer is menaced by a Japanese priest towering over him, surrounded by robed men and women shouting their renunciation of the weeping woman.
“Madama Butterfly,” Puccini’s classic tragedy, debuted in Fairbanks this weekend to the delight of two sold-out audiences. The massive production was put on by the Fairbanks Symphony Association and Opera Fairbanks, and was conducted by UAF Professor Eduard Zilberkant.
Walking in the door of the Davis Concert Hall, the audience was welcomed by the chaos of the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra rehearsing disparate parts of the score to come. The hall was liberally sprinkled with gray heads, the few college students in small clumps. The rather cramped venue did nothing to deter the audience’s enthusiasm or appreciation of the opera set before them.
The set was sparsely decorated—Japanese partitions hanging from the side entrances, a few pieces of furniture placed in the narrow strip of stage not occupied by the eighty-piece orchestra. The cast used the aisles of the hall, even the fire exit, to make the stage larger, but in some cases it was still a tight fit.
Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly,” set in Nagasaki in 1904, at first tells a love story between a young geisha, Cio-Cio San or “Butterfly” (Teresa Eickel), and an American naval officer, Lt. Pinkerton (Joshua Shaw). But soon after the wedding, Pinkerton leaves. Cio-Cio San remains ever hopeful of his return, loyal after she has been renounced by her friends and family.
Three years later, she finally sights his ship on the horizon, and stays vigil throughout the night, her fair-haired child beside her. Pinkerton returns—bringing an American wife. Cio-Cio San, overcome with disgrace, sends her child away holding an American flag, and throws herself on her father’s sword.
Eickel, in the title role, was captivating. Her pure, sweet soprano has the strength and versatility to handle both biting fury and the sweetest love song. From innocent, infatuated girl, then woman of steel resolve turning down all suitors, to her final tragic end, Eickel owned them all. The audience was caught by the sweep of her voice and the grace of her movement.
Shaw, unfortunately, was not of the same caliber. The tenor was sometimes swallowed up by the orchestra, his voice rough on the high sections. He played Pinkerton as smug and oblivious, and in the third act, as he renounces the sorrow he caused Cio-Cio San, it is hard to feel any sympathy.
Kevin Kees, singing the US Consul Sharpless, was one of the best overall portrayals. The character’s evolution—initial bemusement and caution at Pinkerton’s wedding, giving way to enchantment with the bride, and, after Pinkerton’s long absence, regret and sorrow for Cio-Cio San—was sincere and subtle. His rich, colorful baritone fleshed out the role beautifully.
David Cangelosi’s Goro, the matchmaker, was comic role, replete with grimacing and pantomime. His voice was on of the most powerful of the performance, and he was quite believable as a “very annoying man.”
Zilberkant’s passionate conducting provided a second show for the price of one. The music was the backbone of the opera—sweeping, thundering, soft, lyric—and certainly not easy to perform, but the orchestra was up to the challenge. The singers and orchestra balanced each other: even at hearing-damage volume levels, each was an equal.
At times, the grand arc of the tragedy seemed to be too much for such a small stage. With the full chorus and cast on stage, there was little room for them all to breathe, and suspension of disbelief suffered.
Still, the opera retained its power. One audience member remarked on how much Fairbanks had grown up—“We never would have dreamed of this twenty years ago.”
Now, they had the opportunity to do more than dream.