An evening at the opera should probably not start with burgers, but that’s sometimes what you end up having. And there is nothing wrong with that! Right? Anyway, I may not be the classiest guy to walk into the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center for the New York City Opera.
I was genuinely excited to be at Madama Butterfly. The tickets, which I had won via Facebook, were not available at the box office. The director of PR swooped in (Big thank you to Pascal Nadon) and we were in our 6th row Orchestra seats in time to watch the dastardly Pinkerton view his new home. I hadn’t seen the opera or the plays or movies based on Butterfly before, so the character of B.F. (Benjamin Franklin) Pinkerton and the anti-colonial message he embodies is an effective blunt instrument. Pinkerton lets us know he believes it is the American right and duty to “pluck a flower from every new shore.”
Unfortunately, it wasn’t until Ms. Butterfly, soon to be Mrs. Pinkerton, came on stage that the show came to life. Her performance was electric. Yunah Lee was fantastic and the role allows her to play larger than life (and death). The music was very good, but it took her involvement for it to all click. The second act is all Butterfly, and it was treat.
The sets and the costumes are fine. It fit, it worked and that was all that was needed. For an opera that is over 100 years old, the topic certainly feels contemporary. It did not need to look contemporary.
The Metropolitan Opera has a wonderful series of education links that I am just starting to explore.
I want to thank the NYC Opera for my fantastic seats and the Metropolitan Opera for their useful educational tools...and most of all my wife, for being my accomplice for the Year of Classical!
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