Monday December 5, 2011 - A few seasons back, Chinese-Canadian soprano Liping Zhang gave a beautifully-sung and memorably-acted interpretation of Cio-Cio-San in the New York City Opera's production of Puccini's MADAMA BUTTERFLY. What might have been a routine repertory matinee was transformed into a deeply moving experience, and at the end the audience rose to salute the soprano with one of the biggest ovations I'd heard at the State since the prime of Beverly Sills. Now Liping Zhang headlines a revival of the Anthony Minghella production at The Met.
Above: dancer Hsin-Ping Chang in a Ken Howard/Met Opera photo. The Minghella production, which was so visually striking when I watched it in a dress rehearsal a couple of seasons ago, loses much of its impact if viewed from the high-side seats where I like to sit. You can see all the mechanics behind the magic; illusions become workaday theatrical craft, and the vast open space in which the story plays out lets voices wander up into the flies instead of zooming out into the auditorium.
The production's biggest problem is in the use of a puppet to represent Cio-Cio-San's child. This gimmick dilutes the relationship between mother and child which is the very soul of the opera; in their last moments together, when Butterfly tenderly begs her son to always remember her face, the presence of the puppet's two handlers ruins one of opera's most devastating moments. I have seen some extraordinarily moving performances of the role of Trouble, none more so than in the film of the opera featuring soprano Ying Huang. The little boy in that film is so lovely and vulnerable that about one minute after he appeared onstage I had to stop watching it; I took the disc out and donated it to the library...I was never able to watch any more of it.
The Minghella puppet also reminds me of the horror-movie character Chucky, giving an unwanted comic air to his appearances in the production. You keep expecting him to come alive, knock over the screens, tear down the Japanese lanterns and slit Suzuki's throat.
But enough about that. The current revival is conducted by Placido Domingo and much as I like and admire Placi, he isn't and never will be a great opera conductor. Some of his work on the podium has been more than acceptable, but tonight he was favoring sluggish tempi and allowing the orchestra to cover his essentially lyrical cast of singers. Butterfly's entry was a three-way battle between baton, soprano and chorus. Time and again tonight the singers waited for orchestral phrases to be punctuated so they could move forward; Domingo was invariably a moment too late. This tug-of-war soon drained the energy out of the evening, though the orchestra played very well indeed - notably concert-master David Chan's silken phrasing at "Vogliatemi bene" in the love duet. Domingo's snail-pace added fifteen minutes to the opera's announced running time.
Liping Zhang overcame both the conducting and the production to present a wholly satisfying portrayal of the iconic Puccini character. The soprano has so steeped herself in the styistic nuances of Italian operatic singing that someone wandering into The Met tonight without knowing who was singing might mistake her for a lirico soprano from Naples or Turin. Zhang has sung this role so often over the past decade that she knows exactly how to navigate the most demanding passages and safely spare herself undue vocal strain or stress. If Domingo's orchestra sometimes covered her, she never forced or fretted but continued on her steady way, using the language and a skillful manipulation of dynamics to score one point after another. She took the D-flat in the entry, and a sustained high-C at the end of the love duet. 'Un bel di' was as finely and poetically sung as I have ever heard it, and in the devastating monolog 'Che tua madre' where Cio-Cio-San grimly contemplates returning to the geisha house to support her child, the soprano touched at the heartstrings. Her death scene was very moving, maintaining her lyricism despite Domingo's threatening volume from the pit. Liping Zhang's most resplendant singing, though, came in her hushed expression of the passage 'Vogliatemi bene' in the love duet; here her Italianate warmth and delicate portamenti were at their most persuasive.
Robert Dean Smith, a tenor best-known for his work in the big German roles (his Met Tristan and Bacchus were both excellent) is a good match for Liping Zhang in this opera because they both refuse to push their voices; Puccini sets the score for a large orchestra, but it's up to the conductor to assure that the singers are always heard. So tenor and soprano joined in a most attractive rendering of the long love duet even though the maestro sometimes swamped their efforts; rather than enter into a screaming match, the singers simply steered their own course, and all the better for that. Although his voice lacks a certain ping, Robert Dean Smith's tone is warm and unfettered and he knows how to phrase the music off the words. Overall I liked him a lot, and feel certain I would have liked both him and his soprano even better with a different conductor (Joseph Colaneri would be my choice.)
Beyond the two protagonists, the performance was not particularly impressive vocally. Baritone Luca Salsi has a nice voice and demeanor but he tended towards over-emphasis, with a choppy, hectoring aspect that doesn't suit the music; I thought fondly of past favorites in the role of Sharpless: Theodor Uppman, Dominic Cossa, Juan Pons. Maria Zifchak's portrayal of the faithful Suzuki is moving and maternal; she did some nice harmonizing with the soprano in the 'flower' duet but the mezzo's tone sometimes takes on a steady beat. Joel Sorenson was an incisive Goro and Daniel Sumegi a powerful Bonze. Debuting South African baritone Luthando Qave made a good vocal impression as Yamadori, the wealthy prince who offers Butterfly a ray of hope that she fails to grasp.
The house was not full but the audience seemed attentive and awarded Liping Zhang with a warm ovation at the final curtain. Near the end of the love duet, as the soprano was just starting her "Dolce notte, quante stelle..." a male voice from backstage yelled 'Slow down!" (perhaps Domingo thought it was Gelb hollering at him). And during the most affecting moments of the Humming Chorus a cellphone went off. Opera-going these days is always at risk from unwanted intrusions of reality.
Metropolitan Opera House
December 5, 2011
MADAMA BUTTERFLY
Giacomo Puccini
Cio-Cio-San.............Liping Zhang
Pinkerton...............Robert Dean Smith
Suzuki..................Maria Zifchak
Sharpless...............Luca Salsi
Goro....................Joel Sorensen
Bonze...................Daniel Sumegi
Yamadori................Luthando Qave [Debut]
Kate Pinkerton..........Jennifer Johnson Cano
Commissioner............David Crawford
Yakuside................Craig Montgomery
Mother..................Belinda Oswald
Aunt....................Jean Braham
Cousin..................Laura Fries
Registrar...............David Lowe
Conductor...............Plácido Domingo