Madama Butterfly, Opera Holland Park - opera review

This classically structured tragedy is tight, intimate and beautifully contained. Director Paul Higgins has trusted in his actors, demanding authentic Japanese movement from Butterfly and his chorus
19 September 2013

I’ve always reckoned Madama Butterfly could cope without its first act. And Opera Holland Park’s production — which only gets started after the interval — would certainly benefit from the cut.

To remind you, the second act — in which abandoned geisha wife Cio-Cio San waits for the American lieutenant who married her for sport — is a classically structured tragedy: tight, intimate and beautifully contained. It’s a wronged woman’s Oedipus Rex, wholly centered around the deluded title character.

Regular OHP prima donna Anne Sophie Duprels holds this centre with ease, flipping between anger and disingenuous charm, a proud housewife and panicking lover. There have been more polished Butterflies but few this charismatic. Supporting stars David Stephenson as Sharpless and Patricia Orr as Suzuki are well up to the personal drama.

But the first act, in which Cio-Cio San marries the Lieutenant, is a different proposition. Free of tension, it relies on spectacle. Director Paul Higgins has trusted in his actors, demanding authentic Japanese movement from Butterfly and his chorus.

But the chorus — with the best will in the world — can’t move, and, besides this, are dressed drably. DuPrels, meanwhile, floats around Neil Irish’s unattractive, bare stage, her geisha gestures often crossing the line into nutty ballet. It means she has little eye contact and no chemistry with Joseph Wolverton’s Pinkerton, a casual middle-aged chap who marries without exuberance or even noticeable lust. It’s a dreary opening to a show which gets a lot better.

Until July 4 (operahollandpark.com)