At
her wedding, early in Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly,” Cio-Cio-San coyly
answers a question from Sharpless, the American consul in Nagasaki,
about her age. She is 15, she says, adding, “I’m already old.”
Sharpless
can hardly hide his shock. Though alarmed by the cavalier way that
Pinkerton, an American Navy lieutenant, has courted Cio-Cio-San, the
geisha known as Butterfly, he has not really tried to prevent this
marriage. But 15? That’s an age for “playing games,” Sharpless says.
Though
Cio-Cio-San is a teenager, and Pinkerton a young man, these roles
require mature, rich, full voices. Even singers well into their 30s are
often too underdeveloped.
So
it was affecting to see such a gifted and committed young cast in
“Madama Butterfly” on Thursday night when the Martina Arroyo Foundation,
which provides training and performance opportunities to emerging
singers, presented a production at Hunter College, the first of two
offerings in the foundation’s Prelude to Performance program.
Taehwan
Ku, the tenor singing Pinkerton, is in the master’s degree program at
Manhattan School of Music. The soprano Brandie Sutton, portraying
Cio-Cio-San, at 32, is in the early stage of a professional career and
already has some significant credits. If, now and then, you could hear
signs of effort in their singing, the freshness and expressivity of the
performances won you over. The detailed, confident work of the entire
cast surely resulted from good coaching during the weeks of preparation
that the program provides. And the 660-seat Kaye Playhouse at Hunter
College is a helpfully intimate space for young voices.
Ms.
Sutton brought a warm, ample voice to Cio-Cio-San, with nice bloom in
her high notes and tenderness in soft, melting phrases. There is already
a distinctive, earthy coloring in her sound that she used to advantage
in Cio-Cio-San’s moments of shame and despair, when it sinks in that
Pinkerton, gone for three years, has returned, but with an American
wife.
Mr.
Ku’s voice, though still light for the role, has natural warmth and
ping. He may have lacked the swagger that Pinkerton should have. But he
was at his best during the soaring, emotionally complex duet with
Cio-Cio-San on their wedding night, when Pinkerton wonders whether his
powerful desire is a passing whim or a real emotional claim.
The
production, directed by Gina Lapinski, though simple and traditional in
look, was sensitive and nuanced. Hyona Kim, a vibrant mezzo-soprano,
was an endearingly good-hearted Suzuki, Cio-Cio-San’s servant. Alexander
Lee brought a bright tenor voice and impish vitality to Goro, the
scheming marriage broker. Young Kwang Yoo’s solid baritone voice and
stolid bearing suited Sharpless.
At
the core of the performance was the excellent, experienced conductor
Willie Anthony Waters, who drew stylish and urgent, if sometimes
scrappy, playing from the orchestra.
