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| Hyenseoung Kwan as Butterfly and Jeffrey Gwaltney as Pinkerton Photocredits www.londonist.com |
Raymond Gubbay’s Madam
Butterfly has returned to London, with an in-the-round interpretation at
the Royal Albert Hall, directed by David Freeman and set by David Roger.
Running for only eighteen days, the show hasn’t been given a large amount of
time or publicity to achieve optimum ticket sales, but for a fairly un-hyped
performance, it certainly was not a disappointment.
The dainty, Japanese water-garden set was authentic and
naturalistic, establishing the picturesque setting instantaneously. The use of
water on stage caught my eye upon entering the theatre, however later proved to
bring some compromises to Freeman’s spatial direction of the play: the array of
bridges and pools left the cast with limited space to make the most of, hence
concentrating most of the action very much centre stage. Had we been in a
studio theatre, this would be of no problem, but when catering to the
5000-capacity Royal Albert Hall, this may have left the upper circle with
restricted viewing of the action.
The authentic Geisha costumes brought an added sensation
of delicacy and awe to the performance; especially notable during the female
chorus’ first entrance to the stage. From the complicated details in the floral
pattern on the women’s kimonos to their painted-white porcelain faces, the
intricacies of the costumes subsidised where some of the most sincere plot
lines were glossed over.
What lacked about the performance was the suggestion of
Pinkerton’s untrustworthiness throughout the whole of act one. As this was my
first time seeing the show, I had nothing to compare it with at the time, but
from reading other’s responses to the performance it has become evident that some
of the hint loss is due to the smoothing over of some of Puccini’s composing,
which should help us suspend disbelief about Pinkerton. Others have said that
lots of the suggestions have simply been lost in Amanda Holden’s translation.
Despite this, the moment where Butterfly blindfolded her son and took her own
life was poignant and breath-taking; Kwon captured Butterfly’s horror upon
encountering Pinkerton’s American wife incredibly.
Overall, although some of the opera’s darker plot themes
were pushed into the background, the performance was enjoyable and there were
some moments indicating a lot of thought has gone into the rehearsal and design
of this show.
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