2h 21min | Music | TV Movie 1997
Patrick Summers ... conductor
Stars: Cheryl Barker, Jay Hunter Morris, Douglas McNicol, Ingrid Silverus.
I was just going to test the disc to file it away, and the music hooked me immediately.
The production is traditional, except that no makeup is used to make the Japanese characters look less Anglo (and they're all Anglo, or maybe some Mediterranean); only costumes and wigs make the distinction, which in the case of the marriage broker is confusing, because he wears Western attire.
From the synopsis in Simon's 100 Greatest Operas: first performed in 1904, the story takes place in Nagasaki, which we destroyed in '45. Also, the ending here is not as Simon describes it: that B'fly blindfolds her son, commits her act, and Pinkerton runs in to discover them. Instead, the boy is given to Kate, and B'fly commits her act alone, curtain.
The audio is very remote, meaning the microphones were some distance from the singers. Pinkerton looks a little like Aldo Ray; not like a Naval Lt, nor an opera singer, more like a shot putter, baseball player or military non-officer. B'fly is beautiful of face and of voice, and acts well enough.
live opera, cond. Summers; 8
