By Sebastian Spreng, Visual Artist and Classical Music Writer

In the Puccini operatic canon, Madama Butterfly occupies no middle ground as to audience views. Those who adore Puccini’s exquisite Oriental painting with passion á la italiana will never make peace with those who can’t stand the story of a geisha deceived by lo yankee vagabondo and who, in some opera houses, break out in boos when the tenor takes a bow.

After a disastrous premiere at Milan’s La Scala in 1904 and a triumphant revival following extensive editing by the author (four times prior to 1907), the telling of Cio-Cio San’s story has proved profitable and varied to the present day, when thematic and historical research has shined new light on fundamental aspects and provided diverse interpretations of the culture clash portrayed in David Belasco’s play (based on the short story by John Luther Long and the semi autobiographical novel by Pierre Loti Madame Chrysanthème) and, later, the definitive heroine in Puccini’s magnificent opera.

The version with which the Florida Grand Opera opened its 74^th season (a season that will require maximum support from South Florida audiences, according to CEO and general director Susan Danis, who conveyed urgency when addressing the audience at intermission) employed a most traditional staging. David Gordon’s sets, borrowed from the Sarasota Opera, were given new life by Kenneth Yunker’s colorful lighting and Charles Allen Klein’s elaborate costumes, in this case, the FGO’s own. Within his classic and conventional production, director Marc Astafan tried to avoid the clichés associated with the story, with varying degrees of success. Hits abounded, but misses included the child’s change of clothes at the end of the second act, an anti-climax that detracted from the magic of Butterfly’s intimate waiting, framed by one of the most sublime moments in operatic history, the famous “humming chorus,” excellently prepared by chorus master Michael Sakir.

Backed by their vast experience in the roles of Butterfly and Sharpless, respectively, Kelly Kaduce and Todd Thomas headed up an enthusiastic cast primarily made up of graduates or current members of the company’s Young Artists Program. Uruguayan tenor Martin Nusspaumer, playing his first Pinkerton, displayed vocal and dramatic skill and also possessed the right physique du rôle. Caitin McKechney’s Suzuki brought complexity to an often thankless role. The rest of the cast acquitted itself well and had an outstanding member in newcomer Jeffrey Beruan, playing the fierce Uncle Bonze. Thomas’ performance as a self-assured consul was matched by Kaduce’s. The soprano embodied the geisha in all her facets, displaying superb naturalness in depicting the metamorphosis of a butterfly struggling between two worlds, changing from happy teenager to betrayed woman, hurtling, with touching skill, toward the inexorable denouement.

The opera’s symphonic dimension, as well as the author’s inveterate theatricality and the well-drawn personality of each character, revealed through musical sketches, were expertly rendered by an orchestra that finds in conductor Ramon Tebar a pillar of indisputable excellence with a special affinity for the composer. Tebar and his orchestra assumed a well-deserved starring role in the interlude between the second and third acts, depicting in sound a luminous dawn that provides no hint of the tragedy to come, a masterful coup de théâtre that exemplifies the Puccini tradition at his best.

Madama Butterfly – FGO: Dec 4 & 6 at the Au-Rene Theater at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, click here for tickets & info