a kind of turandot
by Douglas Messerli
Luigi
Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa (libretto, based on the play by David Belasto cand
the story by John Luther Long), Giacomo Puccini (composter) Madama Butterfly / the production I saw
with Howard Fox was the live HD broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera production
on April 2, 2016
What I did notice, however, was that when
I last wrote this production in 2009, I seemed to put as much blame on Cio-Cio-San’s
refusal to perceive the truth of her situation as upon the behavior of the
heartless American Lieutenant Pinkerton. But this time, struck with the
handsome Roberto Alagna’s posturing, I grew even more disgusted by the ugly
American character, feeling that even the morally-grounded Sharpless (performed
again by Dwayne Croft) did not do enough to stop his countryman’s cruel behavior.
Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton—named perhaps
for Franklin’s reportedly licentious behavior in his Paris days—has arranged
his marriage with Cio-Cio-San with the same bemusement that he has arranged for
the 999-year rental of their Nagasaki home. From the very beginning this
barbarian, it is clear, has utterly no intention of keeping his marriage
contract with the 15-year old girl. At least Humbert Humbert stayed with his
Lolita as long as he was permitted to. Pinkerton openly jokes about having a woman
in every port and “dropping his anchor” around the world, using the words
obviously as a metaphor for sexual dalliance.
Pinkerton not only makes it clear that
someday he will break the marriage contract with Cio-Cio-San by marrying an
American woman, but he does not even attempt to hide the fact his interest in
the young innocent (played this time round by a rather robust adult beauty,
Kristine Opolais) is a product of simple lust. Perhaps I missed it in the early
Met production, but this time I was struck by how clearly that lust was
expressed as he sneaks a view through the Japanese screens of his young bride
getting undressed. Even though he already possesses her, it is clear that his
interest in the underage beauty is the product merely of, as my companion
Howard honestly expressed it, a hard-on.
During an intermission, Alagna described
his character in less negative terms, arguing that he perceives him as simply a
young sailor who has made a terrible mistake, and commends his later admission
to his American wife and decision to adopt the child. “Think of him as a young
soldier in Afghanistan,” he suggested, a lonely boy who finds pleasure in the
beautiful local.
The problem with such a forgiving view,
however, is that, although Pinkerton may have regrets, he is not honest enough
to openly express them to his former lover; upon his return to Nagasaki with
his new wife, Pinkerton has no intent upon even seeing Cio-Cio-San, and only
when Sharpless reports to him that she has had the lieutenant’s baby does he
bother to make a visit—with the express purpose of taking away the only thing
she has to give her solace. And even then, the small band of greedy Americans
plans their visit early in the morning so that they might not have to face
Cio-Cio-San but merely convince her faithful Suzuki (Maria Zifchak) to tell her
of their plans.
Opolais described her character as
representing the highest attainment of womanhood: a woman who is beautiful,
loving, passionate, loyal, forgiving. Cio-Cio-San does not even put blame on
Pinkerton’s wife, but suggests that she should be the happiest of all beings,
since she will now have everything, while Cio-Cio-San will have nothing.
In the end, it appeared to me, seeing the
opera again, that if Cio-Cio-San remains an innocent, by opera’s end she has
also become a kind of Turnadot.
Los Angeles,
April 4, 2016
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