OPERA IN ORANGE COUNTY : A NEW BUTTERFLY IN NYCO ‘BUTTERFLY’

Another “Butterfly,” another Butterfly. Friday night, it was Louisa Jonason’s turn to selflessly commit picturesque hara-kiri on behalf of the New York City Opera at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

The unheralded protagonist from Minnesota, who had made her Lincoln Center debut in the same role in 1984, started out with a belt.

When this Cio-Cio-San padded her way across the quaint little bridge leading to her quaint little house in Lloyd Evans’ fading Nagasaki, she suggested the wrong Puccini heroine: the imperious and leather-lunged Turandot, perhaps, but not the traditionally sweet and demure 15-year-old geisha.

She looked robust. Abetted by the super-live Segerstrom Hall acoustics, she made a mighty sound.

It was an undeniably impressive sound--a strong, rare, full-throated spinto sound that cut through the orchestral and choral fabric with laughing ease. Although Jonason avoided the optional D-flat of the entrance aria, she asserted herself as the sort of singer who makes one look forward to the climaxes.

For all her vocal amplitude, however, she seemed less than totally committed to the character at hand. This Butterfly conveyed little fragility, less vulnerability, only the vaguest suggestion of the traditional Asian manner.

Then, with the rise of the second-act curtain, much changed. Suddenly, Jonason began to explore the light and shade of mezza-voce contrasts. She lightened and brightened her tone, seemed girlish where, before, she had seemed womanly. She also found telling expressive nuances in the text.

For some strange reason, she held back the heroic thunder at the sighting of Pinkerton’s ship (“Ei torna e m’ama “). Later, however, she offered generous compensation in the ascending pianissimo shimmer of the offstage lullaby and in the poignant simplicity of the death scene.

This, obviously, is a still unpolished portrait. Nevertheless, the inherent promise is extraordinary.

Scott Reeve, the tall and gangly new Sharpless, exuded the usual crusty sympathy. His conviction and dramatic intelligence minimized the potential disadvantages of ill-disguised youth and a somewhat dull-edged, small-scale baritone.

Jane Bunnell revealed a dark and healthy mezzo-soprano in addition to attentive dramatic instincts as Butterfly’s faithful companion. Has anyone ever seen a bad Suzuki?

Richard Leech returned as a youthful, golden-toned, virtually definitive Pinkerton--remember his name!--and the supporting roles were cast as before.

Christopher Keene again conducted, deftly.

Incidental intelligence: No plans have been finalized to bring the New York City Opera back to Costa Mesa next season. That surprising word comes straight from the impresaria’s mouth, and Beverly Sills adds that open dates on her company’s tour schedule are very scarce.