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TV REVIEW : Skilled Cast Powers ‘Madama Butterfly’

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TIMES MUSIC WRITER

Giancarlo del Monaco’s 1994 Metropolitan Opera production of Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” proclaims resoundingly the Italian heart and the Japanese setting of this most tragic of operas.

Lighting (by Gil Wechsler) flatters singers and creates dramatic mood; settings and costumes (by Michael Scott) produce simplicity and beauty in equal parts. And Del Monaco’s stage directions, detailed but never fussy, tell the story most affectingly. Bring your handkerchief.

Musically, the production, unveiled at the Met in New York on Dec. 1, 1994, sounds as lush and emotionally pointed as the composer might wish, in a performance led authoritatively by Italian conductor Daniele Gatti. The Met Orchestra provides rich background to skilled singing-acting from Catherine Malfitano (Cio-Cio-San), Wendy White (Suzuki), Richard Leech (Pinkerton), Dwayne Croft (Sharpless) and Pierre Lefebvre (Goro).

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Malfitano is a controversial Butterfly in that she evokes the character’s tragic and willful elements more successfully than her vulnerability; still, this Cio-Cio-San, rock-like in her single-mindedness, dominates the action convincingly--her every move describes the drama. Her singing? Professional and serviceable--neither pretty nor ugly, always appropriate.

Leech’s Pinkerton, which can stand the scrutiny of the television camera as profitably as can Malfitano’s performance, acts and sings easily and believably. His accumulation of detail in Act 3, in particular, becomes admirable, and the Love Duet of Act 1 really gets warm. White’s Suzuki seems nearly lost in the character’s conflicts, yet never stops making handsome sounds.

Three-dimensional in character, textually pointed and rich in sound, Croft’s Sharpless is one of the reasons the many reputed longueurs of Act 2 never actually materialize. And, for once, Lefebvre’s faceted Goro garners sympathy rather than annoyance. The rest of the cast, credited only very briefly at the end, contribute strongly.

* “Madama Butterfly” airs at 8 tonight on KCET-TV Channel 28, with a simulcast on KUSC-FM (91.5).

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