Hallé Orchestra: Madama Butterfly, review: emotional intensity that stings like a bee

The Hallé Orchestra’s semi-staged performance of Puccini's opera was stripped back yet possessing true passion and pathos

After a two-year pandemic-induced delay the Hallé Orchestra’s semi-staged performance of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly finally arrived on the stage of The Bridgewater Hall, to close the orchestra’s season.

I say “stage”, though in fact the action was confined to a narrow strip right at the front of the concert platform, behind conductor Sir Mark Elder’s back. But the drama hardly suffered, as Puccini’s tale of the poor Japanese girl Cio-Cio San who is married, made pregnant and then abandoned by the American naval officer Pinkerton is an intimate affair, played out within the rooms of a little “paper house” which as Pinkerton says could be “carried away by a breeze.”

The special emotional intensity of this opera comes from the juxtaposition of things which are delicate – spring blossoms, the paper house – with things which are tough and unyielding: the brute fact of American imperial power, the contempt of Cio-Cio San’s family and priest when she abandons her old religion. And not least Cio-Cio San herself, who at the end dies by her own hand rather than live with dishonour.

All this came across with full force. The fact that the leading role was taken by the Japanese soprano Eri Nakamura you’d think would give an extra edge of intensity, but given the ideological heat around the subject of how to cast non-Western roles in opera it could have been more of a distraction than a help. If I warmed to her portrayal of the 15-year-old Cio-Cio San in Act 1, was it merely because she so perfectly embodied the Western fantasy of the submissive oriental woman?

Fortunately Nakamura’s portrayal was so strong that I was able to forget these scruples. One could discern budding strength as well as tender vulnerability in her singing, and by Act 2, where she has been waiting three years for Pinkerton’s return, the growth in character was obvious. She was well able to reduce the suitor Prince Yamadori to silence with her sarcasm, and in her famous aria Un bel dì, where she imagines Pinkerton’s ship returning, she ran the gamut of feeling and of vocal sound.

Sir Mark Elder conducting the Halle Orchestra at The Bridgewater Hall, ManchesterCredit: The Halle/Bill Lam

Much of the opera’s pathos comes from Cio-Cio San’s relationship with her nurse, Suzuki, played here with affecting tenderness by Ann Taylor. The young, New Zealand-born tenor Thomas Atkins made a lyrically pleasing Pinkerton, though not as domineering in his top notes as an imperialist naval lieutenant needs to be. Among the smaller roles Alasdair Elliott was excellent as the sly old marriage broker Goro, while Jihoon Kim was appropriately stony as the outraged Buddhist priest.

The most commanding presence vocally was Serbian-born baritone David Bižić, who embodied the kindliness and moral scruples of the consul, Sharpless. The direction by Gerard Jones made deft and intelligent use of minimal space and props – a wreath of cherry blossom, a prayer bell – but it seemed odd to project the original stage directions in the surtitles, when they were often contradicted by what we were looking at.

Just as vital to the evening’s success was the wonderful Opera Chorus of the Royal Northern College of Music, equally good as the gentle humming chorus and as the family members spitting curses, and the Hallé, on magnificent form under Elder’s intelligent, beautifully paced direction. So magnificent, in fact, that in the glaring acoustic of Bridgewater Hall the singers were just occasionally overwhelmed. Elder gave a special weight to key moments, such as when Cio-Cio San shows her few family heirlooms to Pinkerton, including the knife with which she will eventually kill herself. The tone darkened, and we felt the shadow of the tragedy to come.