Madame Butterfly

 Yesterday we went to see Giacomo Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly at Lyric Opera of Chicago. It's a well-known and much loved opera but in case you aren't familiar with the plot, here's a brief overview.

An  American Naval officer, BF Pinkerton, is stationed in Japan. He has met a beautiful young Japanese woman, Cio-Cio San (Madame Butterfly) who has fallen on hard times, and has asked her to marry him. He doesn't consider this a real or valid marriage, though she, of course, does. He eventually leaves to go back to the States and she loyally waits for his return. She has his child, a little boy. When he finally returns, he comes with his American wife. They wish to take the boy back to the U.S. Cio-Cio San is devastated and kills herself. There is, of course, a lot of singing.

Pinkerton is the bad guy in this opera, truly an ugly American, and after most performances the tenor singing the role is booed during the final bows. That always seemed unfair to me. The singer sang beautifully and threw himself into the role, after all.

In this staging, though, Pinkerton is a modern-day guy engaged in a role-playing game. We see him getting a beer, putting on his VR glasses, and observing the action, as well as taking part in it. We in the audience see how distressed modern Pinkerton is by the actions of Pinkerton in the opera. During the final bows there were some boos for Pinkerton, but way less than usual.

In the reviews online are mixed, but some reviewers hated this production, calling the virtual reality bit "odd' or "distracting." My husband and I found it intriguing and liked that it put a new light on the characters and plot.  

As an aside, I know that many people find opera off-putting, in part because of the foreign languages. That was a barrier in the past - you had to study the story in advance in order to know what was going on. But now most opera houses have super titles, a projection above the stage with the words in English. When my husband and I visited Vienna (many years ago) the Vienna Opera had small screens on the back of the seats where you could select the language you wanted and the translation would scroll there.