Tuesday, 18 December 2012
AIDA 1989 2009 and 2012
I have experienced the Opera AIDA, live, three times although twice via a cinema relay from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. In 2009 and Saturday 16th December 2012. The other occasion was a large arena production at Earls Court in the 1980’s where we were so far from the stage at the back of the stalls that we quickly moved to the side with a view over looking the huge set from one side.
In 2009 I wrote that “Yesterday I had one of the great cultural experiences of a lifetime, visually stunning, musical perfection and I still have the tingles from the rich power of the Metropolitan Opera House New York production of Aida, relayed to the Tyneside Film Theatre in HD.
Then today I bought a subscription to the Library of previous productions, some 200, and watched the original production of Aida in 1989 with Dolora Zajick playing the same role as Princess Amneris as she had two decades later, yesterday.“
Now to these experiences I can add the 2012 production from the Met, viewed at the Cineworld Bolden at half the cost of that charged in Newcastle.
As a young man I had purchased an extended Play 45 record of the Rome Opera Chorus with the Triumphant march from Aida and after the mass audience performance at Earls Court had come to regard the opera as a spectacle with great interaction between powerful singers and a large chorus. It had taken several decades to appreciate that this is a masterpiece for soloists and primarily a tragic triangle between two women and the man they love.
This was a point well made by the new conductor at the Met Fabio Luisio in one of several interviews before and during the latest production which had two similar looking women with extraordinarily moving and powerful voices, the worldly experienced Russian Mezzo Soprano, Olga Borodina as the Princess and the mysterious Liudmyla Monastryrska in her debut role outside the Latvian Opera House in the Ukraine, where she had toiled as a lead for many years unrecognised until now by the rest of the operatic world. Nothing appears to be published about this woman except that she had kept in contact with her singing teacher who was now ninety two. She needed the help of an interpreter for her brief interview..
The Opera is set in ancient Egypt as information reaches the court that the Ethiopians have invaded the country and Radamés, a favoured soldier, is entrusted with the responsibility of leading the army to drive out the enemy. The complication is that he in is love with Aida the Ethiopian slave assistant of the Princess Amneris, the King’s daughter and heir, while the Princess is in love with him. The Princess urges her father to appoint Radames to defend the nation although she has suspicions that her slave is also in love with her hero.
In addition to the three live performances I have also been fortunate to view via a Met Internet Subscription the 1989 production when the Princess was also played by Dolora Zajick, American by birth and who came to international attention as a top level performer with this role when in her late thirties and her voice with its power and range had fully developed. Then she also looked the passionate and jealous young woman so that in 2009, approaching her sixtieth year with the operatic frame to match, the first reaction was to be concerned at a portrayal of what is written in the libretto as a young Princes, especially if one did not know that she has sung the role to acclaim in a score of productions and some 250 performances and that it remains as strong and yet beautiful with a remarkable range. Her solo performances are breathtaking and rightly received the greatest applause in both performances experiences and applause which broke out in the cinema which is something I have not previously experienced since my childhood.
For the 2009 production the part of Radamés was played by Johan Botha, a South African leading tenor who has the build to match AIDA and Amneris and who then 54 was regarded as one of the great tenors of the present generation. However he cannot be compared with the 1989 production where the part was played by Placido Domingo then 50 and one of the most well known and loved tenor in the world, especially since the death of Pavarotti. Domingo has sung 128 roles, more than any other tenor, and opened the Metropolitan season 21 times, four more than Caruso. In 1989 Aprile Millo played Aida when she was only 39 and proved she had a voice to match that of Domingo and Krajick and all three had a suburb dramatic presence which is often lacking in the productions which tour provincial theatres. The 2009 performance of Aida was played by Violeta Urmane, Urmanaviciute, a Lithuanian aged 48.
Because of being the same generation the physical frames of the three singers connected in terms of passion and anguish with its triangle of affections and conflict over nationality. What both sets of lead singers are able to accomplish is to make their performances so convincing that it should make young people rethink their attitudes to the older generation and their relationships. However having been excited and impressed by the performances of 2009 they were eclipsed by those of 1989 so I went to the Cineworld questioning if I was going to be disappointed.
In the present production the part of Radamés, the appointed army commander, is played by Roberto Alagna a man approaching his sixtieth year but who looks ten years younger with an extremely passionate and tender tenor voice. Used to powerful singers in the title role he was booed by some when he performed the role at La Scala Milan in 2006 and to the horror of the management he walked off the stage not to reappear. After the death of his first wife he married the great soprano Angela Gheorghiu but their relations became stormy to the extent that she refused to perform with him in the 2009 Metropolitan Production of Carmen which I also saw live and in truth felt he had been miscast. The marriage has continued after separation and contrary to the audience reaction in Rome I thought he brought an important new dimension to the role and one which echoed the approach of the conductor. It has become more an opera of two parts
The second act tends to be that for which the reputation of the opera became established because of its visual spectacle. There is a vast cast of several hundred deployed to great effect. In addition to the Chorus there are about 100 individuals used to represent the successful army and then the prisoners of War. There are also dancers and animals in this instance horses specially trained to cope with the loud music, the singing and the marching. The tall, vast and cavernous stage at the Metropolitan is changed several times with scenery, weapons and uniforms which fill 17 pantechnicons. There are 150 stage hands required and the advantage of the relayed Met productions is that cameras show what happens in the two 30 minutes intervals. There are also some 40 to 50 make up artists and dressers also required, plus the stage management team and the full orchestra. Ticket sales account for half the production costs so on going private sponsorship and donations becomes essential as there is no public funding as in the UK.
Back to story and with Radames off to lead the army consecrated by the High Priest Ramfis at the Isis Temple Aida is torn between anxiety for him and for her father the Ethiopian King, a fact which is unknown to the Egyptians.
In the first part of the second Act the Princess, having grown more suspicious of Aida tests by saying that Radamés has been killed and as a consequence Aida reveals her position, but hides her distress on learning that her people have been defeated.
There is then the Triumphant March scene famous all over world because of its spectacle with the climax when the prisoners are brought in and Aida sees her father, the king, in shackles. The Egyptian king offers Radamés anything he wishes so he pleads for the freedom for the slaves who are allowed to return home with the exception of Aida and her father who has said the King had died. The Egyptian King then throws the proverbial spanner in the works by giving Aida to Radamés in marriage, a gift which cannot be refused and which is to the great pleasure of Princess Amneris.
While there are half hour intervals between the first two acts, the changes between the third and fourth acts are made with the audience remaining in their seats. A feature of all Met Relays is that during the relays the lead singers are interviewed, by Renée Fleming, her a lead soprano at the Opera house, followed by periods of 15 and 20 minutes where the audience can view the scene changers, followed by further interviews, in this instance a look at museum pieces of former productions of AIDA and a look at future productions in this 12 event relay season.
The final two acts are in major contrast to the second, concentrating on the relationship between the trio. Amneris goes to Temple to pray until dawn and thus is in a position to overhear when Radamés and Aida meet in secret and he is persuaded by her to run away together after she has met up with her father and persuades her to try and find out the battle plans because his countryman have risen up and invaded once more to free their King and his daughter and gain revenge for the defeat and plundering of their country. Radamés, not aware of this aspect suggests they travel in a different direction from the Egyptian army, unaware what he is doing as a consequence.
As soon as Radamés reveals the route plan, Aida‘s father reveals himself and he and his daughter beg Radamés to flee with them. He is horrified at having unwittingly given away the battle route information and when confronted by Amneris who has summoned the High Priest, he surrenders to their judgement. Their decision is for him to be entombed in the vaults below the temple, and this constitutes the final act after Amneris pleads with him to give up Aida and she will plead with her father to save him. When he refuses she turns away from him, momentarily.
In the tomb Radamés finds that Aida having learned of the verdict has not accompanied her father and hidden in the tomb to wait for him. She explains that they will face death together in each other’s arms.
Meanwhile above them and unaware that the couple are together, the Princess is beyond consolation for having given Radamés over to the judgement of the Priests. While everything beforehand was outstanding it is the dramatic singing of the last act which for me has taken operatic singing go a new height. There have been few cultural experiences of a similar impact in my life, hearing traditional jazz first time in a Soho cellar, hearing Verdi’s Requiem Mass at a Royal Albert Hall promenade season both when seventeen years old. There have been other magical moments from the Live Aid Concert, to the stage musicals Les Miserables and Miss Saigon, to the Bruce Springsteen concerts and to hearing Louis Armstrong playing half a century ago at the Davis Theatre in Croydon. I suspect that it was only from the accumulation of these and more general life experience emotional highs and lows than one can appreciate the magnificence of the voices and their emotional intensity.
“Then to be able to experience the original production using the same set and costumes and libretto added an even greater dimension to the experience. I am very fortunate to have had the opportunity and to now be able to experience more,” was how I the writing in 2009.
It is therefore against this benchmark that I most judge the latest production Borodina is good but no one can approach the emotional intensity of Zajick. I will need to experience the performance of the 1989 and 2009 roles of Aida again to compare with that of Liudmyla whose voice I thought matched that of Olga. For my Christmas present to myself I have purchased the two DVDs which have become available together with the 2008 performance of Madam Butterfly. Stefan Kocán was the priest, George Gagnidze played father and Miklos Sebestyén the King.
It is because of the use of the camera close up that one is able to judge the emotional expressions which adds to the appreciation of singing where the exceptional artists are able to communicate emotional intensity through the voice as well as their technical abilities. Not therefore as good of the performances of 1998 and 2009 but a very good experience.
Sunday, 16 December 2012
Rigoletto
It is also time to write of my experience of watching a live relay at the Bolden Cineworld of Guiseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto from the Royal Opera House, London, and the 497th performance on Tuesday 12 April 2012 at 7.15. I was unfamiliar with the story or the production in the packed theatre although I overheard a conversation warning that it was raunchy.
In contrast to the Metropolitan and other great Opera House the Royal Opera House London had developed a reputation for staging challenging and at time controversial productions of the classics. The Opera was first performed in Venice in 1851. The inspiration for the work is the play by Victor Hugo Le roils s’amuse which depicts the king of France as an immoral and cynical womaniser. Instead of the King of France the opera features an Italian noble whose title although a real one had become extinct.
The opera open at the court of the Duke who sings about his pleasure in taking as many women as possible. I use taking than having because of his use of position and subterfuge to seduce everyone from whores to the wives of the courtiers. In the Royal Opera production members of court participate in an orgy with loose women who are topless with one naked as the act progresses together one full frontal male nude. Given the audience was primarily middle aged to elder, here were some gasps from those unprepared, although many like me I suspect had lived through the era of Hair.
The Duke is presently engaged in two ambitions. The first is to seduce the wife of the Count of Caprano and the second a virginal young woman he has recently seen at church. The court is also interested in rumours that the deformed (hunchback) court jester Rigoletto has a lover because of visiting a house on a regular basis often late at night and without mentioning it to anyone in the court. Rigoletto does not endear himself to the court especially as suggests arresting the husbands/ fathers of those the Duke wishes to seduce. In one instance the Duke arrests a father who utters a curse on the Duke and Rigoletto who is much affected.
From scene two of the first act the Opera changes its mood. Rigoletto comes across an assassin who offers his service and considers that while the man kills with physical weapons, he uses the tongue to stab victims with its malice. He accept the suggestion of a group of disguised courtiers that he should help them in the kidnapping the Countess Coprano, taking her out of the orbit of the advancing Duke. They blindfold Rigoletto. Meanwhile the Duke having trailed the Rigoletto’s daughter Gilda to her home and overhears the young women express her interest in the young man at church who she hopes is not a noble man but someone poor such as student. He pretends to be so on making contact and gaining the support of her maidservant Giovanna who he sends away. Hearing sounds which she assumes her father returning she sends the Duke away declaring in her interest in him. The blindfolded Rigoletto then aids the group in kidnapping his daughter who they spirit away leaving him horrified when he realises he is at his home and his daughter has gone. He remembers the curse laid on him.
In the one scene second Act Rigoletto returns to the Palace believing it is the Duke who the most likely to have taken his daughter. In fact it is the Duke who learning what his courtiers have done rescues her and then declares his interest without disclosing his position. The courtiers make fun of Rigoletto for having made fun of then and when he explains about the loss of his daughter instead of owning up they beat him up but he manages to finds his distressed daughter who tells him to send everyone else away. Rigoletto convinced the Duke is behind the kidnapping talks of revenge but the girl pleads for the young man with whom she has become infatuated. As with Miranda in the Tempest both women have been kept away from young men and fall for the first male to show an interest.
In the third Act the Duke visits the Inn run by the assassin and his sister and he sings the famous aria La donna é mobile -women re fickle. He is heard by Gilda and her father who are passing by and she then witnesses him attempting to seduce the willing sister. The Duke has previously expressed genuine interest and loving concern for Gilda and a willingness to mend his ways at the commencement of the second Act but the availability of the woman is too much for him and he reverts to his natural ways.
Rigoletto bargains with the Assassin to kill the Duke who because of a storm spends the night at the Inn. Rigoletto persuades his daughter to leave the city, disguised wearing the clothes of a man. The sister has genuine affection for the Duke and on learning that her brother has been paid to kill him pleads with him not to do so but kill the first person available. Gilda overhears the plot and despite knowing the behaviour of the Duke sets out to save him by dressed as a man calling on the Inn.
Rigoletto returns to the Inn at midnight to remove the killed man in a sack to be dumped in the river. He has to see the body for his revenge to be complete and only then sees the body of his beloved daughter. He remembers the curse and collapses. Given that I was unaware of the story the ending is something of a shock although the emotions aroused are very different from those in the opening scene.
The opera is a tour de force for Dimitri Platinias as Rigoletto who made his name when playing the role with the Greek National Opera and this is his Convent Garden debut. I thought his performance outstanding. The Duke is played by the Italian Vittorio Griglo who once appeared in a version of West Side Story with James Goldofini before turning to Opera He made his debut at the Royal Opera House in Faust as the lead. Gilda is played by Ekaterina Siurina having previously performed the role in a production at the Metropolitan.
In contrast to the Metropolitan and other great Opera House the Royal Opera House London had developed a reputation for staging challenging and at time controversial productions of the classics. The Opera was first performed in Venice in 1851. The inspiration for the work is the play by Victor Hugo Le roils s’amuse which depicts the king of France as an immoral and cynical womaniser. Instead of the King of France the opera features an Italian noble whose title although a real one had become extinct.
The opera open at the court of the Duke who sings about his pleasure in taking as many women as possible. I use taking than having because of his use of position and subterfuge to seduce everyone from whores to the wives of the courtiers. In the Royal Opera production members of court participate in an orgy with loose women who are topless with one naked as the act progresses together one full frontal male nude. Given the audience was primarily middle aged to elder, here were some gasps from those unprepared, although many like me I suspect had lived through the era of Hair.
The Duke is presently engaged in two ambitions. The first is to seduce the wife of the Count of Caprano and the second a virginal young woman he has recently seen at church. The court is also interested in rumours that the deformed (hunchback) court jester Rigoletto has a lover because of visiting a house on a regular basis often late at night and without mentioning it to anyone in the court. Rigoletto does not endear himself to the court especially as suggests arresting the husbands/ fathers of those the Duke wishes to seduce. In one instance the Duke arrests a father who utters a curse on the Duke and Rigoletto who is much affected.
From scene two of the first act the Opera changes its mood. Rigoletto comes across an assassin who offers his service and considers that while the man kills with physical weapons, he uses the tongue to stab victims with its malice. He accept the suggestion of a group of disguised courtiers that he should help them in the kidnapping the Countess Coprano, taking her out of the orbit of the advancing Duke. They blindfold Rigoletto. Meanwhile the Duke having trailed the Rigoletto’s daughter Gilda to her home and overhears the young women express her interest in the young man at church who she hopes is not a noble man but someone poor such as student. He pretends to be so on making contact and gaining the support of her maidservant Giovanna who he sends away. Hearing sounds which she assumes her father returning she sends the Duke away declaring in her interest in him. The blindfolded Rigoletto then aids the group in kidnapping his daughter who they spirit away leaving him horrified when he realises he is at his home and his daughter has gone. He remembers the curse laid on him.
In the one scene second Act Rigoletto returns to the Palace believing it is the Duke who the most likely to have taken his daughter. In fact it is the Duke who learning what his courtiers have done rescues her and then declares his interest without disclosing his position. The courtiers make fun of Rigoletto for having made fun of then and when he explains about the loss of his daughter instead of owning up they beat him up but he manages to finds his distressed daughter who tells him to send everyone else away. Rigoletto convinced the Duke is behind the kidnapping talks of revenge but the girl pleads for the young man with whom she has become infatuated. As with Miranda in the Tempest both women have been kept away from young men and fall for the first male to show an interest.
In the third Act the Duke visits the Inn run by the assassin and his sister and he sings the famous aria La donna é mobile -women re fickle. He is heard by Gilda and her father who are passing by and she then witnesses him attempting to seduce the willing sister. The Duke has previously expressed genuine interest and loving concern for Gilda and a willingness to mend his ways at the commencement of the second Act but the availability of the woman is too much for him and he reverts to his natural ways.
Rigoletto bargains with the Assassin to kill the Duke who because of a storm spends the night at the Inn. Rigoletto persuades his daughter to leave the city, disguised wearing the clothes of a man. The sister has genuine affection for the Duke and on learning that her brother has been paid to kill him pleads with him not to do so but kill the first person available. Gilda overhears the plot and despite knowing the behaviour of the Duke sets out to save him by dressed as a man calling on the Inn.
Rigoletto returns to the Inn at midnight to remove the killed man in a sack to be dumped in the river. He has to see the body for his revenge to be complete and only then sees the body of his beloved daughter. He remembers the curse and collapses. Given that I was unaware of the story the ending is something of a shock although the emotions aroused are very different from those in the opening scene.
The opera is a tour de force for Dimitri Platinias as Rigoletto who made his name when playing the role with the Greek National Opera and this is his Convent Garden debut. I thought his performance outstanding. The Duke is played by the Italian Vittorio Griglo who once appeared in a version of West Side Story with James Goldofini before turning to Opera He made his debut at the Royal Opera House in Faust as the lead. Gilda is played by Ekaterina Siurina having previously performed the role in a production at the Metropolitan.
Monday, 21 May 2012
Rigoletto
It is also time to write of my experience of watching a live relay at the Bolden Cineworld of Guiseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto from the Royal Opera House, London, and the 497th performance on Tuesday 12 April 2012 at 7.15. I was unfamiliar with the story or the production in the packed theatre although I overheard a conversation warning that it was raunchy.
In contrast to the Metropolitan and other great Opera House the Royal Opera House London had developed a reputation for staging challenging and at time controversial productions of the classics. The Opera was first performed in Venice in 1851. The inspiration for the work is the play by Victor Hugo Le roils s’amuse which depicts the king of France as an immoral and cynical womaniser. Instead of the King of France the opera features an Italian noble whose title although a real one had become extinct.
The opera open at the court of the Duke who sings about his pleasure in taking as many women as possible. I use taking than having because of his use of position and subterfuge to seduce everyone from whores to the wives of the courtiers. In the Royal Opera production members of court participate in an orgy with loose women who are topless with one naked as the act progresses together one full frontal male nude. Given the audience was primarily middle aged to elder, here were some gasps from those unprepared, although many like me I suspect had lived through the era of Hair.
The Duke is presently engaged in two ambitions. The first is to seduce the wife of the Count of Caprano and the second a virginal young woman he has recently seen at church. The court is also interested in rumours that the deformed (hunchback) court jester Rigoletto has a lover because of visiting a house on a regular basis often late at night and without mentioning it to anyone in the court. Rigoletto does not endear himself to the court especially as suggests arresting the husbands/ fathers of those the Duke wishes to seduce. In one instance the Duke arrests a father who utters a curse on the Duke and Rigoletto who is much affected.
From scene two of the first act the Opera changes its mood. Rigoletto comes across an assassin who offers his service and considers that while the man kills with physical weapons, he uses the tongue to stab victims with its malice. He accept the suggestion of a group of disguised courtiers that he should help them in the kidnapping the Countess Coprano, taking her out of the orbit of the advancing Duke. They blindfold Rigoletto. Meanwhile the Duke having trailed the Rigoletto’s daughter Gilda to her home and overhears the young women express her interest in the young man at church who she hopes is not a noble man but someone poor such as student. He pretends to be so on making contact and gaining the support of her maidservant Giovanna who he sends away. Hearing sounds which she assumes her father returning she sends the Duke away declaring in her interest in him. The blindfolded Rigoletto then aids the group in kidnapping his daughter who they spirit away leaving him horrified when he realises he is at his home and his daughter has gone. He remembers the curse laid on him.
The opera is a tour de force for Dimitri Platinias as Rigoletto who made his name when playing the role with the Greek National Opera and this is his Convent Garden debut. I thought his performance outstanding. The Duke is played by the Italian Vittorio Griglo who once appeared in a version of West Side Story with James Goldofini before turning to Opera He made his debut at the Royal Opera House in Faust as the lead. Gilda is played by Ekaterina Siurina having previously performed the role in a production at the Metropolitan.
In contrast to the Metropolitan and other great Opera House the Royal Opera House London had developed a reputation for staging challenging and at time controversial productions of the classics. The Opera was first performed in Venice in 1851. The inspiration for the work is the play by Victor Hugo Le roils s’amuse which depicts the king of France as an immoral and cynical womaniser. Instead of the King of France the opera features an Italian noble whose title although a real one had become extinct.
The opera open at the court of the Duke who sings about his pleasure in taking as many women as possible. I use taking than having because of his use of position and subterfuge to seduce everyone from whores to the wives of the courtiers. In the Royal Opera production members of court participate in an orgy with loose women who are topless with one naked as the act progresses together one full frontal male nude. Given the audience was primarily middle aged to elder, here were some gasps from those unprepared, although many like me I suspect had lived through the era of Hair.
The Duke is presently engaged in two ambitions. The first is to seduce the wife of the Count of Caprano and the second a virginal young woman he has recently seen at church. The court is also interested in rumours that the deformed (hunchback) court jester Rigoletto has a lover because of visiting a house on a regular basis often late at night and without mentioning it to anyone in the court. Rigoletto does not endear himself to the court especially as suggests arresting the husbands/ fathers of those the Duke wishes to seduce. In one instance the Duke arrests a father who utters a curse on the Duke and Rigoletto who is much affected.
From scene two of the first act the Opera changes its mood. Rigoletto comes across an assassin who offers his service and considers that while the man kills with physical weapons, he uses the tongue to stab victims with its malice. He accept the suggestion of a group of disguised courtiers that he should help them in the kidnapping the Countess Coprano, taking her out of the orbit of the advancing Duke. They blindfold Rigoletto. Meanwhile the Duke having trailed the Rigoletto’s daughter Gilda to her home and overhears the young women express her interest in the young man at church who she hopes is not a noble man but someone poor such as student. He pretends to be so on making contact and gaining the support of her maidservant Giovanna who he sends away. Hearing sounds which she assumes her father returning she sends the Duke away declaring in her interest in him. The blindfolded Rigoletto then aids the group in kidnapping his daughter who they spirit away leaving him horrified when he realises he is at his home and his daughter has gone. He remembers the curse laid on him.
In the one scene second Act Rigoletto returns to the Palace believing it is the Duke who the most likely to have taken his daughter. In fact it is the Duke who learning what his courtiers have done rescues her and then declares his interest without disclosing his position. The courtiers make fun of Rigoletto for having made fun of then and when he explains about the loss of his daughter instead of owning up they beat him up but he manages to finds his distressed daughter who tells him to send everyone else away. Rigoletto convinced the Duke is behind the kidnapping talks of revenge but the girl pleads for the young man with whom she has become infatuated. As with Miranda in the Tempest both women have been kept away from young men and fall for the first male to show an interest.
In the third Act the Duke visits the Inn run by the assassin and his sister and he sings the famous aria La donna é mobile -women re fickle. He is heard by Gilda and her father who are passing by and she then witnesses him attempting to seduce the willing sister. The Duke has previously expressed genuine interest and loving concern for Gilda and a willingness to mend his ways at the commencement of the second Act but the availability of the woman is too much for him and he reverts to his natural ways.
Rigoletto bargains with the Assassin to kill the Duke who because of a storm spends the night at the Inn. Rigoletto persuades his daughter to leave the city, disguised wearing the clothes of a man. The sister has genuine affection for the Duke and on learning that her brother has been paid to kill him pleads with him not to do so but kill the first person available. Gilda overhears the plot and despite knowing the behaviour of the Duke sets out to save him by dressed as a man calling on the Inn.
Rigoletto returns to the Inn at midnight to remove the killed man in a sack to be dumped in the river. He has to see the body for his revenge to be complete and only then sees the body of his beloved daughter. He remembers the curse and collapses. Given that I was unaware of the story the ending is something of a shock although the emotions aroused are very different from those in the opening scene.
Tuesday, 13 March 2012
Madam Butterfly in 3D and Miss Saigon soundtrack
The highlight of my 73rd birthday weekend was a 3D performance of Madame Butterfly with the Canadian Chinese Zhang Liping as Madam Butterfly and the experience was then followed by listening to the soundtrack of the stage musical Miss Saigon which is based on the Madam Butterfly story and where I have seen the stage show four times such was my enthusiasm for it.
It was a glorious sunny and warm day as I set off to go through the Tyne tunnel and indeed not a day for the inside of anywhere. I set off down the hill and was astonished to find that Ocean Road, the main thoroughfare between the town centre, passing the row of over a bed and breakfast hotels on one side and a similar number and more of restaurants on the other was blocked off.
On Monday morning because of a forecast of another good weather day I walked down and alongside the park before turning into ocean Road from the park end I discovered the cause of the blocking. The former public house and over recent year’s nightclub bar has almost been demolished. The closure of the building was no surprise as a number of other similar establishments have also been closed with one presently being turned into offices although even this work appears to have come to a halt. The demolition of the building is a surprise.
As I rounded the corner on my way to the Health centre for a blood test I was not surprised to see the John Wright centre boarded up. It was one of the first multi use centres for those with disabilities and in my time a chapel and a bar lounge had been added although its use was reduced with the creation of a modern work centre for those with a learning disability and the of visual disability creating their own centre. Given that in my time a purpose built centre embracing people with disabilities and the able bodied had been created in Jarrow and then in the late 1980’s a state of the art centre for multi disability use and for the elders was purpose built in Hebburn the financial justification for the three centres disappeared long ago if it ever existed. That they did reflect the finest aspect of a people based local democracy.
The exploration of what was going on meant I arrived later than intended at the Health centre and found 12 others before me although by the time the second block of ten people were called into the waiting area for the tests the 29th individual had been reached. However even with only two chairs the process was speedy and I was out within half an hour of arriving with time to head for a bacon roll and coffee at the Wetherspoons’ and an excellent coffee it was and then some shopping at the supermarket.
On Sunday I used my new Tyne Tunnel electronic payment disk for the first time. This is a solid plastic disk which fits to the windscreen with a sucker and which registers at the any of the barriers as having paid £1.24 instead of the cash charge of £1.40. One adds amounts in minimum of £15 which provides 6 return journeys about my average need for a year giving and overall saving of only £2 but more significant if not having to find the small change and a faster passage especially now that queuing has been eliminated with the opening of both tunnels. The tag costs £11.40 to provide and is made in China, where else?
I have re-examined my previous reporting on Madam Butterfly where I first saw a relay also on a birthday three years ago. That was a live relay from the Metropolitan New York and then I watched again on Internet connected TV. The 3D version is a filmed event specially constructed to give the impression of a performance before a live audience but where the need for close ups and on stage movement makes filming with the special cameras impossible with an audience although the audience reaction is added at the end.
There is only a limited build up this time and at one level nothing of the audience excitement before the raising of the curtain. Similarly there were no intervals with only a brief pause between the three acts so the performance lasts two hours instead of the usual two and three quarters although traditionally the opera is performed with only one interval. However this had the impact of increasing the emotional tension and sense of dooms despite everyone being familiar with the story as few in the well filled cinema theatre were under fifty. For some reason there was no lighting which made locating seats a problem as a consequence.
The two productions are significantly different with the Minghella production creating a vivid visual presentation which included the use of puppets and dancers as well as a fair size chorus of wedding guests of relatives and Geisha girl friends. His widow attended the New York Metropolitan Performance.
All the action in the Covent Garden production takes place within the confines of the minimalist rented home with the no furniture apart from mats for sitting or sleeping, storage facility under the stage and the occasional use of a small table.
One could argue that this is the one Opera where 3D has nothing to offer although I thought the impact of the additional dimension is that that one has a greater sense of the dramatic and of being on stage rather than as a member of an audience. This is also true for the 3D Carmen production but where the action enables great camera and visual creativity.
It is important not to forget that is the story of an innocent 15 year old Geisha trained Japanese girl Cio Cio San and a mature Naval Officer who these days would be accurately described a paedophile sex tourist and whose conduct is far more reprehensible that of the innocent GI in Miss Saigon when the new bar girl is bought for him by his best friend.
Butterfly was played Patricia Racette in the New York Production, a bulky opera singer but who nevertheless acted with the innocence of an adolescent, a waiting lover and a young mother prepared to sacrifice herself for her child. Zhang Liping is now in in her early forties having played the role to great acclaim in her early thirties and like Racette has the remarkable ability to act with the mannerisms of a young girl, but nevertheless is aware she is far from the child bride to which Pinkerton is drawn.
There was an important difference in the performances of Marcello Giordino as Pinkerton and that now of James Valenti. Giordino is also a bulky opera star which made the relationship in the Met production somehow more plausible if one forgets the difference in ages. Valenti is strikingly tall and very much the educated and sophisticated naval officer. My only problem was the lack of a connection between him and Butterfly You did get the impression that he felt passion for his bride although he is convincing about his guilt and remorse later.
In the opening of the Opera Captain Pinkerton makes it plain that he considers this to be a fake marriage, an experience before he settles down with a wife family in the USA. The girl is sold to him by an unscrupulous marriage broker who is not different from the Bar owner in Miss Saigon, finding virgin in the countryside who will become his premium Miss Saigon bride for the endless stream of lecherous GI’s. Moreover Pinkerton is warned by the Consul that the girl is taking the relationship seriously especially when she is denounced by an elder and who insists she is cut off from all her relations. This makes Pinkerton a dislikeable man from the outset. He is in a rush to complete the formalities and aghast when the relatives arrive and cannot get rid of them quick enough. Although 15 his bride has been trained as a Geisha with appropriate social graces and a personal maid and companion Susuki and while the performance of Helen Schneiderman is world class it cannot compare with that of Maria Zajick, the extraordinary Mezzo Soprano whose signature role are those in Aida but also of Susuki.
The first Act comprises the arrival of Pinkerton at the rented House on a hill overlooking the Nagasaki Harbour; I have always felt there is great irony here with the two rapes of the population of this once fair city. Pinkerton is brought by the marriage broker played by Robin Leggate and the US Consul to ensure the proprieties are maintained and who is troubled by the proposed marriage because he understands the different cultural perspectives.
Unlike the majority of the girls who understand the impact of being a Geisha on the rest of their lives, Suzuki comes from a wealthy family of standing who have fallen on hard time, and waiting in the wings is a young Japanese warrior of good birth wanting to marry her. In this production he is played as an older business man seeking a young attractive mistress no different from Pinkerton.
In Miss Saigon the girl is also from a village whose family fall on hard times with the death of her father. She was promised by to a young Communist warrior who wants her as a proper bride and not as a concubine. They are to take different paths in Opera and Musical.
The American Consul, the marriage broker and Pinkerton are all aware that the wedding ceremony is a façade to enable him to enjoy the experience of the young woman while he is in port, and that whatever he says or promises he has no intention of returning or establishing a permanent relationship. He admits his love em and leave them, a girl in every port, approach, the Consul who warns, from his knowledge of the girl that she is likely to put all her trust in him and take the marriage seriously. Pinkerton notes that the contract can be terminated by him at any time without notice or penalty. It is important to appreciate the cultural and language divide between the two, and the role of the Geisha in Japanese society at that time. This is the tragedy of the opera story.
The situation in Saigon is very different and apart from the exotic location there are have always been bars and bar girls as well as brothels catering for the soldier as there are now for the sex tourist. The soldier here is just as inexperienced of life as his paid bride for the night and for him this one night becomes just an important as he is to her. This is the difference between an experience based on infatuation rather than lust. Pinkerton says all the right words but we know from the outset he does not mean them.
A major in ingredient to the first act is that Madam Butterfly as she has become is that in order to adapt and fit into her husband’s life she has gone to the local mission to become a Christian thus alienating herself for her uncle, the Bonze (Buddhist Monk) who is also one of her uncles and from her other relatives. It is this aspect of the relationship with horrifies her family and alienates her from them not the likely temporary nature of the relationship. It is the way of things just as street children have become the way of things in Indian cities.
Suzuki quickly becomes her confident, mother figure and ally. Cio Cio San has had some education and on being told that she is as beautiful as a butterfly by Pinkerton she responds from knowledge that some men in the West collect Butterflies destroy Butterflies to which Pinkerton explains that they do pin them so as to stop them flying away.
Minghella divided the second act into two parts, which the usual way the Opera is presented in order to achieve maximum dramatic effect. In the first part of the second act three years have passed and Butterfly has remained constant in love and expectation that what he said about returning was truthful and she spends time taking note of the arrivals in the port from her vantage point in the hillside. Suzuki is loyal but sceptical and tries to help her to be more realistic especially as their money begins to run out. The marriage broker brings the young warrior who wants to marry her despite the relationship she has had with the American. She sends them both away. In the Convent Garden production he brings the business man who makes it plain she is to be his concubine and she sends him away clinging to her belief in Pinkerton and that the USA and not Japan is her country.
It is in this middle part of story that the musical Miss Saigon significantly changes. The young man is besotted with the girl and with the help of his friend and with his savings goes to live with her effectively deserting marrying and with the intention that she will become his lifelong woman. It is only because of the impending fall of Saigon and the sudden departure of the Americans that their relationship ends. He has to take one of the last helicopters out of the city while she is among the hundreds left behind to their fate.
Before this the man with whom she was betrothed as a child arrives and is horrified to find out what has happened but his feelings for her remain and he warns both about their fate. The bar owner in Saigon is also on his way out to the closest place where he can continue to trade. Both young women are abandoned but for very different reasons and both wait. It is in Madam Butterfly that she sings one of the great and much loved Operatic Arias of all time One Fine day “Un Bel di”. There is a similar musical number in Miss Saigon although of very different quality but is nevertheless as haunting.
There is also the visit of Warrior in Miss Saigon. This is one of the colourful and subsequently moving moments in the stage show. He comes to take her full of the triumph of the Communist success in driving out the invaders from his country is then is horrified to find that she has a blue eyed son, her pride and her joy and her reason for surviving. He had come to take her and not the child. Her solution is to kill the man with the revolver given to her by her husband before he was forced to leave.
The same scene is played differently in Madam Butterfly with the Consul coming to say he has had a letter in which Pinkerton is explaining his intention not to return but she misinterprets every word which the Consul tries to explain to her and he cannot bear to tell her the truth. When she produces her son all he can do is to leave and report the position to Pinkerton. The child is blue eye and fair haired and adorable. He is destined to break many female hearts on stage, in film and in life in the future.
Pinkerton’s ship arrives and the two women prepare for his visit. Susuki who had her doubts and expresses concern over their rapidly diminishing funds and favoured the match with the businessman as a solution is caught up in the excitement and goes to collect flowers from thee garden to cover the inside of their home. She, Butterfly and child sit waiting expectant for hour upon hour and throughout the night. There is the famous humming chorus and her aria of belief and hope, with similar number in Miss Saigon
In the stage show the war has ended and the Bar owner has discovered the girl and her son and sees this as his ticket to the USA. It he is who alerts the friend of the husband who is visiting to help the children of G’I left behind with an important political song about their fate. It is he who in turn informs his married friend and who in turn admits the relationship to his wife of three years and to whom he has said nothing of his affair and local marriage. There is an important exchange between husband and wife in Miss Saigon that we would expect in the 20th century. It is the expectations of the bar owner which takes the musical into the number The American dream symbolised by a Cadillac is brought on stage.
Butterfly, exhausted goes to bed with her son and Pinkerton the Consul with Pinkerton’s wife waiting outside arrive early to talk to the maid and asking her to break the news to Butterfly and that he has come her son. Although devastated and heartbroken for her mistress Suzuki agrees. Pinkerton is consumed with guilt at what he has done and cannot cope with the reality of the situation and goes off leaving his wife and the Consul talking with Suzuki but before they can leave Butterfly arrives and immediately senses correctly what is going on. She agrees to hand over the child on condition that Pinkerton comes in person for him. As he approaches she commit suicide using the knife which her father used, “to die with honour.”
This is where the Opera when brilliantly sung and acted can devastate an audience no matter how many times they have seen the show and know the story. In its own way Miss Saigon also has a similar impact because the audience has been caught up with the beautiful music and glittering sets and there is horror and universal guilt at the death of the young woman sacrificing herself so that her child will be taken to the USA and have the kind of life she once dreamed for herself.
In many respects it was not the kind of experience for a celebration weekend and affected me as I emerged into the evening sunshine. It was spring but I saw the winter of my life.
It was a glorious sunny and warm day as I set off to go through the Tyne tunnel and indeed not a day for the inside of anywhere. I set off down the hill and was astonished to find that Ocean Road, the main thoroughfare between the town centre, passing the row of over a bed and breakfast hotels on one side and a similar number and more of restaurants on the other was blocked off.
On Monday morning because of a forecast of another good weather day I walked down and alongside the park before turning into ocean Road from the park end I discovered the cause of the blocking. The former public house and over recent year’s nightclub bar has almost been demolished. The closure of the building was no surprise as a number of other similar establishments have also been closed with one presently being turned into offices although even this work appears to have come to a halt. The demolition of the building is a surprise.
As I rounded the corner on my way to the Health centre for a blood test I was not surprised to see the John Wright centre boarded up. It was one of the first multi use centres for those with disabilities and in my time a chapel and a bar lounge had been added although its use was reduced with the creation of a modern work centre for those with a learning disability and the of visual disability creating their own centre. Given that in my time a purpose built centre embracing people with disabilities and the able bodied had been created in Jarrow and then in the late 1980’s a state of the art centre for multi disability use and for the elders was purpose built in Hebburn the financial justification for the three centres disappeared long ago if it ever existed. That they did reflect the finest aspect of a people based local democracy.
The exploration of what was going on meant I arrived later than intended at the Health centre and found 12 others before me although by the time the second block of ten people were called into the waiting area for the tests the 29th individual had been reached. However even with only two chairs the process was speedy and I was out within half an hour of arriving with time to head for a bacon roll and coffee at the Wetherspoons’ and an excellent coffee it was and then some shopping at the supermarket.
On Sunday I used my new Tyne Tunnel electronic payment disk for the first time. This is a solid plastic disk which fits to the windscreen with a sucker and which registers at the any of the barriers as having paid £1.24 instead of the cash charge of £1.40. One adds amounts in minimum of £15 which provides 6 return journeys about my average need for a year giving and overall saving of only £2 but more significant if not having to find the small change and a faster passage especially now that queuing has been eliminated with the opening of both tunnels. The tag costs £11.40 to provide and is made in China, where else?
I have re-examined my previous reporting on Madam Butterfly where I first saw a relay also on a birthday three years ago. That was a live relay from the Metropolitan New York and then I watched again on Internet connected TV. The 3D version is a filmed event specially constructed to give the impression of a performance before a live audience but where the need for close ups and on stage movement makes filming with the special cameras impossible with an audience although the audience reaction is added at the end.
There is only a limited build up this time and at one level nothing of the audience excitement before the raising of the curtain. Similarly there were no intervals with only a brief pause between the three acts so the performance lasts two hours instead of the usual two and three quarters although traditionally the opera is performed with only one interval. However this had the impact of increasing the emotional tension and sense of dooms despite everyone being familiar with the story as few in the well filled cinema theatre were under fifty. For some reason there was no lighting which made locating seats a problem as a consequence.
The two productions are significantly different with the Minghella production creating a vivid visual presentation which included the use of puppets and dancers as well as a fair size chorus of wedding guests of relatives and Geisha girl friends. His widow attended the New York Metropolitan Performance.
All the action in the Covent Garden production takes place within the confines of the minimalist rented home with the no furniture apart from mats for sitting or sleeping, storage facility under the stage and the occasional use of a small table.
One could argue that this is the one Opera where 3D has nothing to offer although I thought the impact of the additional dimension is that that one has a greater sense of the dramatic and of being on stage rather than as a member of an audience. This is also true for the 3D Carmen production but where the action enables great camera and visual creativity.
It is important not to forget that is the story of an innocent 15 year old Geisha trained Japanese girl Cio Cio San and a mature Naval Officer who these days would be accurately described a paedophile sex tourist and whose conduct is far more reprehensible that of the innocent GI in Miss Saigon when the new bar girl is bought for him by his best friend.
Butterfly was played Patricia Racette in the New York Production, a bulky opera singer but who nevertheless acted with the innocence of an adolescent, a waiting lover and a young mother prepared to sacrifice herself for her child. Zhang Liping is now in in her early forties having played the role to great acclaim in her early thirties and like Racette has the remarkable ability to act with the mannerisms of a young girl, but nevertheless is aware she is far from the child bride to which Pinkerton is drawn.
There was an important difference in the performances of Marcello Giordino as Pinkerton and that now of James Valenti. Giordino is also a bulky opera star which made the relationship in the Met production somehow more plausible if one forgets the difference in ages. Valenti is strikingly tall and very much the educated and sophisticated naval officer. My only problem was the lack of a connection between him and Butterfly You did get the impression that he felt passion for his bride although he is convincing about his guilt and remorse later.
In the opening of the Opera Captain Pinkerton makes it plain that he considers this to be a fake marriage, an experience before he settles down with a wife family in the USA. The girl is sold to him by an unscrupulous marriage broker who is not different from the Bar owner in Miss Saigon, finding virgin in the countryside who will become his premium Miss Saigon bride for the endless stream of lecherous GI’s. Moreover Pinkerton is warned by the Consul that the girl is taking the relationship seriously especially when she is denounced by an elder and who insists she is cut off from all her relations. This makes Pinkerton a dislikeable man from the outset. He is in a rush to complete the formalities and aghast when the relatives arrive and cannot get rid of them quick enough. Although 15 his bride has been trained as a Geisha with appropriate social graces and a personal maid and companion Susuki and while the performance of Helen Schneiderman is world class it cannot compare with that of Maria Zajick, the extraordinary Mezzo Soprano whose signature role are those in Aida but also of Susuki.
The first Act comprises the arrival of Pinkerton at the rented House on a hill overlooking the Nagasaki Harbour; I have always felt there is great irony here with the two rapes of the population of this once fair city. Pinkerton is brought by the marriage broker played by Robin Leggate and the US Consul to ensure the proprieties are maintained and who is troubled by the proposed marriage because he understands the different cultural perspectives.
Unlike the majority of the girls who understand the impact of being a Geisha on the rest of their lives, Suzuki comes from a wealthy family of standing who have fallen on hard time, and waiting in the wings is a young Japanese warrior of good birth wanting to marry her. In this production he is played as an older business man seeking a young attractive mistress no different from Pinkerton.
In Miss Saigon the girl is also from a village whose family fall on hard times with the death of her father. She was promised by to a young Communist warrior who wants her as a proper bride and not as a concubine. They are to take different paths in Opera and Musical.
The American Consul, the marriage broker and Pinkerton are all aware that the wedding ceremony is a façade to enable him to enjoy the experience of the young woman while he is in port, and that whatever he says or promises he has no intention of returning or establishing a permanent relationship. He admits his love em and leave them, a girl in every port, approach, the Consul who warns, from his knowledge of the girl that she is likely to put all her trust in him and take the marriage seriously. Pinkerton notes that the contract can be terminated by him at any time without notice or penalty. It is important to appreciate the cultural and language divide between the two, and the role of the Geisha in Japanese society at that time. This is the tragedy of the opera story.
The situation in Saigon is very different and apart from the exotic location there are have always been bars and bar girls as well as brothels catering for the soldier as there are now for the sex tourist. The soldier here is just as inexperienced of life as his paid bride for the night and for him this one night becomes just an important as he is to her. This is the difference between an experience based on infatuation rather than lust. Pinkerton says all the right words but we know from the outset he does not mean them.
A major in ingredient to the first act is that Madam Butterfly as she has become is that in order to adapt and fit into her husband’s life she has gone to the local mission to become a Christian thus alienating herself for her uncle, the Bonze (Buddhist Monk) who is also one of her uncles and from her other relatives. It is this aspect of the relationship with horrifies her family and alienates her from them not the likely temporary nature of the relationship. It is the way of things just as street children have become the way of things in Indian cities.
Suzuki quickly becomes her confident, mother figure and ally. Cio Cio San has had some education and on being told that she is as beautiful as a butterfly by Pinkerton she responds from knowledge that some men in the West collect Butterflies destroy Butterflies to which Pinkerton explains that they do pin them so as to stop them flying away.
Minghella divided the second act into two parts, which the usual way the Opera is presented in order to achieve maximum dramatic effect. In the first part of the second act three years have passed and Butterfly has remained constant in love and expectation that what he said about returning was truthful and she spends time taking note of the arrivals in the port from her vantage point in the hillside. Suzuki is loyal but sceptical and tries to help her to be more realistic especially as their money begins to run out. The marriage broker brings the young warrior who wants to marry her despite the relationship she has had with the American. She sends them both away. In the Convent Garden production he brings the business man who makes it plain she is to be his concubine and she sends him away clinging to her belief in Pinkerton and that the USA and not Japan is her country.
It is in this middle part of story that the musical Miss Saigon significantly changes. The young man is besotted with the girl and with the help of his friend and with his savings goes to live with her effectively deserting marrying and with the intention that she will become his lifelong woman. It is only because of the impending fall of Saigon and the sudden departure of the Americans that their relationship ends. He has to take one of the last helicopters out of the city while she is among the hundreds left behind to their fate.
Before this the man with whom she was betrothed as a child arrives and is horrified to find out what has happened but his feelings for her remain and he warns both about their fate. The bar owner in Saigon is also on his way out to the closest place where he can continue to trade. Both young women are abandoned but for very different reasons and both wait. It is in Madam Butterfly that she sings one of the great and much loved Operatic Arias of all time One Fine day “Un Bel di”. There is a similar musical number in Miss Saigon although of very different quality but is nevertheless as haunting.
There is also the visit of Warrior in Miss Saigon. This is one of the colourful and subsequently moving moments in the stage show. He comes to take her full of the triumph of the Communist success in driving out the invaders from his country is then is horrified to find that she has a blue eyed son, her pride and her joy and her reason for surviving. He had come to take her and not the child. Her solution is to kill the man with the revolver given to her by her husband before he was forced to leave.
The same scene is played differently in Madam Butterfly with the Consul coming to say he has had a letter in which Pinkerton is explaining his intention not to return but she misinterprets every word which the Consul tries to explain to her and he cannot bear to tell her the truth. When she produces her son all he can do is to leave and report the position to Pinkerton. The child is blue eye and fair haired and adorable. He is destined to break many female hearts on stage, in film and in life in the future.
Pinkerton’s ship arrives and the two women prepare for his visit. Susuki who had her doubts and expresses concern over their rapidly diminishing funds and favoured the match with the businessman as a solution is caught up in the excitement and goes to collect flowers from thee garden to cover the inside of their home. She, Butterfly and child sit waiting expectant for hour upon hour and throughout the night. There is the famous humming chorus and her aria of belief and hope, with similar number in Miss Saigon
In the stage show the war has ended and the Bar owner has discovered the girl and her son and sees this as his ticket to the USA. It he is who alerts the friend of the husband who is visiting to help the children of G’I left behind with an important political song about their fate. It is he who in turn informs his married friend and who in turn admits the relationship to his wife of three years and to whom he has said nothing of his affair and local marriage. There is an important exchange between husband and wife in Miss Saigon that we would expect in the 20th century. It is the expectations of the bar owner which takes the musical into the number The American dream symbolised by a Cadillac is brought on stage.
Butterfly, exhausted goes to bed with her son and Pinkerton the Consul with Pinkerton’s wife waiting outside arrive early to talk to the maid and asking her to break the news to Butterfly and that he has come her son. Although devastated and heartbroken for her mistress Suzuki agrees. Pinkerton is consumed with guilt at what he has done and cannot cope with the reality of the situation and goes off leaving his wife and the Consul talking with Suzuki but before they can leave Butterfly arrives and immediately senses correctly what is going on. She agrees to hand over the child on condition that Pinkerton comes in person for him. As he approaches she commit suicide using the knife which her father used, “to die with honour.”
This is where the Opera when brilliantly sung and acted can devastate an audience no matter how many times they have seen the show and know the story. In its own way Miss Saigon also has a similar impact because the audience has been caught up with the beautiful music and glittering sets and there is horror and universal guilt at the death of the young woman sacrificing herself so that her child will be taken to the USA and have the kind of life she once dreamed for herself.
In many respects it was not the kind of experience for a celebration weekend and affected me as I emerged into the evening sunshine. It was spring but I saw the winter of my life.
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