[Met Performance] CID:100410



Madama Butterfly
Metropolitan Opera House, Thu, November 29, 1928 Matinee





Madama Butterfly (200)
Giacomo Puccini | Luigi Illica/ Giuseppe Giacosa
Cio-Cio-San
Florence Easton

Pinkerton
Giovanni Martinelli

Suzuki
Merle Alcock

Sharpless
Antonio Scotti

Goro
Angelo Badà

Bonze
Paolo Ananian

Yamadori
Pompilio Malatesta

Kate Pinkerton
Minnie Egener

Commissioner
Millo Picco

Yakuside
Paolo Quintina


Conductor
Vincenzo Bellezza







Review 1:

Review of Charles D. Isaacson in the New York Telegraph

EASTON PLEASES HOLIDAY CROWD IN PUCCINI ROLE

Soprano Gives Excellent Performance in "Madama Butterfly" - Cast Well Chosen

For Thanksgiving Day matinee, Mr. Gatti-Casazza presented the first hearing of "Madama Butterfly." It was a performance which approximates the type of entertainment the general public can most enjoy, in the field of grand opera. That is to say, it was laid out on human lines. The drama was uppermost in the attention of the audience, although the scintillant and expressive music speeded its way externally through the consciousness of the listeners.

Which recalls again the remarkable vitality of "Madama Butterfly" and its universality as an opera for the larger audience. In English, this score has everything for a Broadway success of today. It could be translated anew and played to a run which would make every light opera and musical comedy fall beside its power.

Well Dramatized

This is due primarily to the story of John Luther Long and the David Belasco dramatization. But also it owes its success to the double-barreled power of Giacomo Puccini. The composer was wise enough to adhere strictly to the dramatic line, and to write the music so that it decorated, illustrated, and gave mood to the text rather than causing them to diverge or become altered in emotion or idea.

Such is the momentum of the opera itself. But not all companies can produce it equally well. Nor can all singers evoke the spirit of the touching story. It may seem a trifle holiday-like to indulge in superlatives, but I do not recall a more realistic 'Madama Butterfly" and I have heard the opera not less than two hundred times, in all forms and with every type of singer. The score is a one-singer affair. If Butterfly is good, the performance can scarcely fail; if she is bad, it can scarcely succeed.

Easton Sings Well

Florence Easton was yesterday's Butterfly. The soprano starts out with one of the worst handicaps any singer may bear who essays the role of the Japanese woman. She is not the type. She is too tall. She looks too entirely European. She really does not assimilate the Japanese mannerisms, although she simulates them, and somehow captures the atmosphere. But being in this opera a great actress, one feels about her the fragility, the strength, the delicacy, the character of Cio-Cio-San. Miss Easton sang well, most of the time, but the singing in this case, was forgotten in the drama.

Mr. Scotti, playing the important role of the Consul Sharpless, gave it a realistic touch, which went to the last details of his gestures, and made one give not a thought to his sometimes impossible vocalism. Martinelli was a creditable Pinkerton, and Miss Alcock a very touching and honest Suzuki, although in her case the Orient was not ever skirted. Messrs. Picco, Malatesta, Ananian Qintina, Bada were the others of the Japanese characters, and Miss Wells, the American wife.

Mr. Bellezza made much of the orchestral contribution, giving to the Entre-Acts with its sentimental and ominous music, as fine a reading as one could ask for. The house was filled, and Thanksgiving dinners did not interfere with the enthusiasm, nor cause any of the many weeping spells, encountered everywhere.



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