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Madama Butterfly at the Arena in Verona [ Author Michael Daniel Watson ] [ From category THE Articles ] [ Subcategory OperaRail 2014 ] [ Translator Cristian Butnaru ] [ Article date: 2014-08-15 ] [ From city Verona ] [ Country Italia ]   Before “Madama Butterfly" I visited Rovereto, another locality near Verona. No train delay, no ghost bus :-) , so I will get directly to the opera, but not before I write about this small, beautiful city, surrounded by mountains, similar to Busteni in Romania, just that the Dolomites are a little taller than our Carpathians. Soo, “bound" by arriving in time :-) I (re) assisted to a tradition that happens at the Arena before any spectacle, namely, lighting the candles by the spectators. A “rain" of lights covered the Arena; the effect is more amazing, as the night gets darker. The background, big as always at the Arena in Verona, was weird. Mountains colored in grey or some sort of cliffs with some artificial stairs on them. Japanese costumes, Pinkerton in a white sailor suite and bold. The consul, unremarkable -but sometimes it is better that way- in dark brown overcoat, cream-colored pants and Goro, a native from Japan, had moustache and was dressed as a clown. Pants with circles, pane blouse, and on the head a cap that made him look like Charlie Chaplin! I can’t say I understood why. The Japanese are crisscrossing the scene. The big scene is well filled by them and other elements, umbrellas, baskets, merchants and authentic mules. :-) Surprise! The cliffs are moving aside and from the back a house appears. You wouldn’t suspect it existed there! Another surprise… the house is moving! Its traditional Japanese, the sliding doors are opening and Cio-Cio-san appears The brunet is wearing a long kimono red on the exterior and blue on the interior. Pinkerton and Butterfly are getting married - moments in which both are sitting in “seiza", the well-known Japanese position “in knees"- then comes Bonzo furioso (somewhere up, on a cliff to the right, the moment is also underlined by illuminating with an orange light) until here all is as expected. Then Butterfly is “Renegata e felice", but Pinkerton is sitting somewhere far away in an armchair that’s 10 meters away! But the love songs (arias) continues and if on the real skies there are big clouds and nothing can be seen, on the steps of the Arena behind the scene, artificial stars are shinning. There are only a few; the effect is pretty good, but not outstanding. In my opinion the stars should have been on the entire free surface the Arena had in the back of the stage. The two of them enter the house and retreats, the cliff are closing just like I was imagining when I was little in “Sesam close! " Or if I think about it a little, right now I would imagine the same way those cliffs. :-) The second act, the cliffs are opening and the house comes in front. “Un bel di, vedremo! " (In a beautiful day, we will see! ) The magic aria is beautifully interpreted, but the huge distance from the scene make less vivid. “E questo", the child is dressed in a light blue kimono, the same as his mother, Suzuki is wearing a brown one. The choir is silent. The house retreats while the cliffs are closing. The public applauds (I didn’t understand why, it wasn’t the first time the house was retreating) and ruins the moment. The maestro is upset and retakes the final notes to reintroduce the enchanting atmosphere at the beginning of the aria. Women in grey, the cliffs color, with waving fans are sitting on the cliffs. From a distance it creates the sensation that they are big butterflies attached to the cliffs. Beautiful! The final occurs as a sunset. Butterfly is dressed in a bright red kimono. From the house a huge Sun can be seen. Butterfly is dying; the cliffs are getting closer, minimizing the sunlight, the Sun sets. The cliffs have closed for the last time. Distribution Cio-Cio-San: Veronica Simeoni F.B. Pinkerton: Roberto Aronica Sharpless: Gabriele Viviani Conductor Marco Armiliato Director: Franco Zeffirelli Costumes: Emi Wada Coreography: Maria Grazia Garofoli

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