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‘Madama Butterfly’ will be performed Friday and Sunday.
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‘Madama Butterfly’ gets an update

‘Madama Butterfly’ gets an update

The story behind Giacomo Puccini’s opera Madama Butterfly is sad — perhaps even true.

In Puccini’s celebrated 1904 work, which kicks off Toledo Opera’s 56th season Friday, American sailor Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton “marries” Cio-Cio-San, a Japanese geisha working in Nagasaki, sets her up in a house on a hill, and sails away.

Both Pinkerton and Cio-Cio (the name means butterfly in Japanese), are blindsided upon his return three long years later.

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Pinkerton has a wife, a real American spouse.

Cio-Cio-San has a son, Pinkerton’s mixed race child.

As Pinkerton sails away with their son,  Cio-Cio-San commits seppuku or hara-kiri.

When the story hit America at the turn of the 20th century, shortly after trade with Japan had been opened and all things Nipponese were in vogue, it was turned into a novel, then a hit Broadway show that toured, including to London.

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There, Italian composer Giacomo Puccini saw the play and promptly began to write what is arguably his most beloved opera, Madama Butterfly.

But this Toledo Opera production, to open at 7:30 p.m. Friday and repeat at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Valentine Theatre, will be a bit different from typical productions of this Puccini fave.

Think of it as Butterfly 2.0.

Observant audience members may notice less emphasis on that all-too-common operatic trope: the woebegone heroine. They may catch more honesty in depictions of cultural tensions between East and West.

Certainly director Jay Lesenger, in town to stage this production, hopes so. He brought this rarely-performed revision with him.

Officially, it’s the Brescia version, a rewrite Puccini shaped after his original production went down in flames at LaScala in Milan.

Determined to redeem his reputation, Puccini and his librettists rewrote words and music for Butterfly. When it opened later that year in Brescia (BRESH-ia), a northern Italian town, the rethought work drew raves.

Lesenger was grateful to discover the Brescia version.

“I had problems with Butterfly,” he told principals during an early rehearsal. “Everyone bashes her and she kills herself. When I discovered Brescia, it made all the difference.”

Then head of opera productions for the Chautauqua Institute, Lesenger tracked down the revised libretto and score, working with the legendary conductor Sarah Caldwell, then at Boston Opera.

For Sara Jobin, the opera’s new associate conductor, who will conduct the Toledo Symphony, the Brescia version is refreshing as well.

“It still sounds like Puccini, but the words are changed,” she said last month.

Lyrics better represent the tension between East and West, and diminish the taint of victimhood.

One aria was added, another reduced.

In Butterfly 2.0, Cio-Cio-San is cast more as a savvy businesswoman than an empty-headed lover. Pinkerton reveals America’s brash view of Japan’s ancient and refined civilization.

“Butterfly is a victim but she kills herself for honor. She’s a geisha,” added Jobin, who has tackled opera’s somewhat misogynistic traditions by espousing new works with strong women leads.

“What I love about this version is that it makes clear that Butterfly set up the arrangement with Pinkerton,” said Lesenger. Butterfly’s demise at her own hand is the result of self-delusion, he added.

Lesenger retired in August after 20 years at Chautauqua. Before that, he ran the opera theater at the University of Michigan.

Jobin started conducting at the San Francisco Opera and now is interim resident conductor for the symphony and associate conductor for the opera. Nominated for a Grammy Award, she helped found the Different Voice Opera Project to seek out works with stronger parts for women.

Both Lesenger and Jobin have a choice cast with which to work.

In the title role is soprano Yunah Lee, who has made Butterfly a career signature. She has performed throughout the United States, in Europe and Seoul, specializing in lyric parts including Mimi, Marguerite, and Pamina in operas by Puccini, Gounod, and Mozart.

Bowling Green native Shawn Mathey will return to Toledo Opera as Pinkerton, the businessman and lover. He is known worldwide for his lyrical tenor work in Mozart operas.

A newcomer to town is Renee Tatum, a mezzo who will portray Suzuki, Cio-Cio-San’s maid and friend. She has just finished a three-year stint as one of the Metropolitan Opera’s young artists.

In a feature story in the September Opera News, Louise T. Gunther wrote, “Tatum has all the assets required for modern opera stardom — blonde, bright-eyed good looks and a mega-watt smile; a confident, vivacious presence; lithe body language.”

Another new face — and voice — for this city is Reginald Smith, whose big and resonant baritone will bring to life Sharpless, the American consul who serves as go-between for Pinkerton and Butterfly. A recent graduate of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, Smith was a Grand Finals winner in the 2015 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

Also making Toledo Opera debuts will be tenor Joel Sorenson, as Goro, and Brandon Morales, as the Bonze. Devon Desmond will portray Prince Yamadori.

Lots of background on the opera and the local production will be on the menu for the first of this season’s Tuesday Talks, an informal, informative session that will start at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Secor Gallery of Registry Bistro, 144 North Superior St.

On hand this week will be Joseph Hara, coordinator of the Japanese program at the University of Toledo, Lesenger, and Jobin.

These events are free to the public with a wine reception to follow. Cost for reception only is $10.

Tickets for the Toledo Opera’s Madama Butterfly are $40-$90 at 419-255-7464 or toledoopera.org.

Contact Sally Vallongo atsvallongo@theblade.com.

First Published September 27, 2015, 4:00 a.m.

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