The Australian Ballet - MADAME BUTTERFLY

The Australian Ballet
MADAME BUTTERFLY
Festival Theatre 
March, 2011, Adelaide

The prologue of Stanton Welch’s Madame Butterfly encapsulates the themes and aesthetic of the entire ballet: to a faint drum roll, behind a chrysanthemum-printed scrim, a kimono-clad woman, seemingly endowed with enormous butterfly wings, scans the audience as if trying to see into her future. Her wings break off, and are revealed as banners held aloft on long poles, before darkness envelops her. The beauty and economy of this image, which says so much with so little, is emblematic of Peter Farmer’s design: surely one of the best in the ballet repertoire. Costumes, props and sets are exquisite renditions of the Chinoiserie aesthetic and are used highly effectively throughout to further the narrative: the inventive use of screens and lanterns to create and illuminate intimate spaces in which sections of the action occur is particularly lovely.

Based on the Pierre Loti novel, Madame Chrysanthème (1887), Puccini’s opera relates the tragic story of the 15-year-old geisha, Cio-Cio-San, whose arranged marriage to the caddish American naval officer Pinkerton is her undoing. She loves him unreservedly, but he regards the marriage as a port-side dalliance during which he can enjoy the exotic pleasures of a Japanese wife before returning to the US to marry his American fiancée. The timeless theme of love betrayed is complicated by cultural tensions between the Americans and the Japanese, as well as the preconceptions about male and female roles held by both nationalities. Loti’s novel was apparently based on a true story, and this  realism renders the plot more affecting than fantastic librettos of many operas and ballets.

Welch created the ballet version for the Australian Ballet in 1995. It was his breakthrough work, and is now in the repertoire of many companies internationally. Welch compressed the opera libretto from three acts to two, and simplified the narrative. John Lanchberry, then musical director of the Australian Ballet, and the acclaimed adapter of many scores for ballet, scored another hit with his adaptation of Puccini’s score.

The opening night cast for the Adelaide season was uniformly superb. Rachel Rawlins in the title role was spellbinding. She was able to convey Cio-Ciao-San’s initial demureness and innocence, her awakening passion for Pinkerton, and finally her anguished oscillation between hope and despair with great power. Her technique was supremely delicate and always in the service of the characterisation. Robert Curran as Pinkerton projected a thoughtless and very sexy masculinity, capable of both tenderness and heartlessness in equal measure. In the pas de deux depicting the consummation of their marriage at the close of Act 1, both danced with a lyricism and an erotic charge that was quite mesmerising. Choreographically this is the high point of the ballet: Welch uses sweeping lifts, delicately poised arabesques and limpid draping of the body to show Cio-Cio-San’s seduction by and submission to her husband with great effect.

Throughout, Sharpless, the US Consul who tries to caution Pinkerton and avert the unfolding tragedy, was beautifully danced by the elegant Adam Bull,
who conveyed the character’s sensitivity and ultimate impotence wonderfully. As Suzuki, Cio-Cio-San’s maid, Leanne Stojmenov was spirited and loyal, dancing with delightful buoyancy. Goro, the cynical Japanese marriage broker who arranges the marriage and tries to force Cio-Cio-San into another after Pinkerton abandons her, was given a bravura performance by Tzu-Chao Chou: an almost Gilbert and Sullivan send-up, in fact.

It is rare to see an adaptation from one art form to another work so successfully, and it’s obvious why Madame Butterfly, choreographed when Welch was a mere 25 years old, launched his international career. This is a rare gem in the ballet repertoire, in which poetic design vividly frames tragic realism. The opening night performance was given a special poignancy by David McAllister’s speech before the curtain was raised, in which he drew the audience’s attention to the terrible events unfolding in Japan.

– MAGGIE TONKIN