OPERA REVIEW : New Faces in Music Center’s ‘Madama Butterfly’

Sunday afternoon at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Music Center offered the sixth and final performance of its controversial new version of “Madama Butterfly.”

An hour before curtain time, opera lovers clogged the box office in vain hope of last-minute tickets. Never underestimate the attraction of Puccini’s lofty tear-jerker.

The production has undergone substantive changes since the Sept. 12 premiere. Some of them represent changes for the better.

Maria Ewing still insists on redefining the character of the protagonist as delineated by the composer and librettists. She ignores the giddiness of the lovesick child bride and her innocent hero-worship in favor of pervasive, statuesque melancholy that borders on dementia. The mezzo-turned-soprano persists, moreover, in avoiding any high notes that are avoidable, and she still lunges at some of the climaxes.

She now paces herself effectively, however, floats consistently exquisite pianissimo phrases in the introspective passages and conveys stoic, heroic pathos in the death scene. Her original ideas compel fascination, even when they seem patently perverse.

Much of the action scheme has been arranged to accommodate her brooding passivity. Nevertheless, Ian Judge (the director) and John Gunter (the designer) do Ewing no favor by placing her high upstage on the distant ramp above the Nagasaki dunes at the climactic moment when Cio-Cio-San sights Pinkerton’s ship.

By the same theatrical token, Judge and Gunter do no favors for the viewers who do not happen to be seated in the center of the orchestra when they play so much of the drama in areas visible only to a privileged minority. A similar problem, not incidentally, marred their staging of “Tosca” here in 1989.

The role of Pinkerton served at the gala opening as a star turn for Placido Domingo. Thereafter, the tenor’s sailor suit has been worn by Jorge Antonio Pita, who brings a pleasantly eager demeanor to the proceedings, a rather immature stage presence and slender bel-canto resources that are dangerously strained by the requirements of verismo fervor.

The original cast enlisted Thomas Allen, our incipient Don Giovanni, as a luxuriously petulant Sharpless. On this occasion, he was succeeded by young John Atkins, who convincingly portrayed the consul as a nerdy junior diplomat with a good heart, a nervous disposition and a handsome baritone voice.

Scott Watanabe, a member of the chorus and the owner of the only genuine Asian features in the cast, stepped up to the duties of Prince Yamadori, Atkins’ previous assignment. He performed with mellifluous aplomb.

Francis Egerton repeated his exceptionally wily Goro. Stephanie Vlahos returned as a sympathetic, vocally lightweight Suzuki who must serve--contrary to all logic--as an active accomplice in Butterfly’s suicide.

Officiating over a much improved (much enlarged) Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Randall Behr again conducted with uncommon sensitivity and breadth.