A word from the Director
Although Madama Butterfly is one of the most performed operas in the repertoire it tends to be one of the most misunderstood. Japanese kitsch fights Italian Opera in most productions, leaving the sense of the tragedy of the characters behind and giving in to a myriad of sins both cultural and aesthetic.
I have directed this opera 5 times and each time it becomes increasingly clear that unless Butterfly’s emotions are credible all else fails. The present approach seems Butterfly as a Japanese woman, desperately trying to step outside of her own culture yet failing miserably to do so. One reviewer referred to this approach as a “kind of cultural collision”, and indeed it is an instance of emotions and cultures collide within the fabric of one tortured soul.
After Japan opened to the west in the 19th century it experienced a kind of cultural confusion. This is detailed in most 20th century Japanese literature but is also to be found in art in the works of Yoshitosi and other artists of the Meiji and post Meiji periods. At this time the Japanese developed crazes on might say fetishes for things western and purchased luxury goods and fashion to emulate western dress and lifestyles. At the same time a current of nationalism which was to find its full fruition in some of the political policies surrounding the Second World War for the purity of Japanese culture and its ways, became more and more pronounced. Butterfly’s fate placed against this background of confusion, is what drives our concept. There is ample background material to support such an approach, from Puccini’s own comments on Butterfly to the history of its narrative as a smutty exotic potboiler made into a spectacle for the theatre by David Belasco. To reinterpret butterfly using means drawn from Japanese culture, yet not forgetting the Italian-American roots of her tale is fruitful and rewarding.
Henry Akina
Stage director