Madame Butterfly - as told by Tova
The Kid is home today. He had a slight fever yesterday. He is fine this morning but because there is a Scarlet Fever outbreak in his kindergarten (what is this, Little Women?!?) and he is at high risk for febrile seizures (have a kid they said, it will be fun, they said), we are keeping an eye on him. On Friday night, I had the honour to go and see Madame Butterfly at the Vienna State Opera house. I haven't been to the opera in about 8 years and when I sat down on Friday night I exclaimed "It is GOOD to be back!" and I meant it. The last opera I went to was La Boheme when the Husband still wanted to woo me with culture or was getting sick of hearing "We never do anything fancy!". Now we watch a lot of Judge Judy re-runs.
I was lucky enough to grow up in a household that made sure we were exposed to all the classics; ballets, operas, symphonies, Bond films. My first opera was when I was 7 and it is probably my dad's favourite memory of me. He had tickets to a Wagner opera but his colleague couldn't make it so he made the decision to take me. I was over the moon. The opera started late so there would be no intermission and according to my dad, I sat there for more than 3 hours in a trance, loving every minute. Which is weird considering I have the attention span of gnat. I think I really loved it or I was going through a high fever that had made me catatonic and internally I was speaking in tongues.
I was spoiled as a kid when it came to good quality music. In Moscow, in my teens, I once saw Swan Lake 4 times over the span of 4 months and it got to the point where I wanted to scream "JUST SHOOT THE DAMN BIRD!" I also got to that point in my earlier teens about The Magic Flute while living in Vienna. Rich, spoiled kid problems.
So many years have passed and my Best of Maria Callas CD has just not been scratching that itch. Luckily, I was invited to join a friend to watch her husband (David Pershall- remember this name) perform in Madame Butterfly. When she asked me I think I might have yelled "Ah Hell yes!" On Friday I left work, ran home and put on my fancy clothes. The opera started at 7:30 and I was so excited to see it that I couldn't stop bouncing. While I have never seen Madame Butterfly, I have heard the music and I couldn't wait to see it live. And now, I bring you my interpretation of Madame Butterfly by Puccini.
It is the early 1900's, Nagasaki, Japan. An American naval officer (Pinkerton) is looking for a house for his soon to be bride (Butterfly). Let me just add that Butterfly is 15. In my country, we call that statutory rape but you know, OPERA! Pinkerton confides in the US Consul Sharpless that he is just marrying her to get a little somethin somethin until he can move back to the States and marry a real Merican girl. Sharpless is suitably disgusted at this plan. All I can think is that this Pinkerton guy goes through a lot effort for a one night stand; learns Italian, takes up opera singing, buys a house. Maybe that's how it worked in the olden days? Now we're lucky to even get free drinks. ANYWAY! Pinkerton talks about his douchey plan and then it is time for the wedding. Butterfly walks up the hill with her gal pals and is declaring herself to be the happiest girl in Japan. Sidenote: The Vienna Opera stage set for Madame Butterfly is hauntingly beautiful. Goosebumps. Madame Butterfly is infatuated with Pinkerton because she obviously has not Google stalked him and seen his hashtag on Twitter: #girlineveryport. There is a wedding, Butterfly is beaming, then there is a party but no party favours or DJ or photobooth. Butterfly needs Pinterest.
As the celebration takes place, her crotchety uncle who is a Buddhist priest shows up (worst wedding crasher ever) and shames her for converting to Christianity and renouncing her ancestors and is he wearing white? Oh no he diiin't. Wedding faux pas. Butterfly is understandably upset but Pinkerton, not wanting to ruin the mood, cheers her up and they sing and then there is the wedding night and well, Marvin Gaye was probably the soundtrack for that night. The curtain closes.
I had a glass of sekt during the intermission because why not.
The curtain opens and we are told that 3 years have passed and Butterfly is still waiting for Pinkerton to return. Shortly after their wedding, Pinkerton left with the promise he would return. Butterfly's maid Suzuki wants to say "Girlfriend, he used you" but plays the role of paid BFF well and supports her... kind of. Suzuki knows what is up and tells her that they have no mo monies. Butterfly is confident that Pinkerton will return.
The American Consul Sharpless shows up because he has a letter from Pinkerton. Girlfriend is so over the moon that Sharpless cannot bear to finish reading it to her. Girlfriend knows how to sing Italian opera so girlfriend should read letter herself but whatevs. At this point, a rich prince shows up and offers his hand in marriage to Butterfly but she says no because she is already married. Sharpless (who does way more than a Consul should ever have to do #yourtaxdollars) tries to gently persuade her to forget Pinkerton and she says she will never beg and that that would be worse than death. #foreshadowing. She gets veddy veddy angry at Sharpless and then apologizes and brings out PLOT TWIST... her son. Pinkerton doesn't know that he knocked her up before leaving and she asks the Consul to tell him.
At one point a canon is shot and Butterfly looks out to the harbour and sees the ship that Pinkerton uses to get foreign punani. She is excited to the nth degree and tells Suzuki that Pinkerton should be at their front door in an hour or two. She tells Suzuki to decorate the place with flowers for his arrival. I'm impressed she has continued to shave her legs for three years. If I only had an hour or two to get ready for a surprise visit from my husband, I would be running around in circles clutching a Lady Gillette. Anyway, the place is ready, her hair is purdy and she gets ready to wait. And she waits all night looking through a hole she has poked in the screen door (at this point I started thinking about how one goes about replacing a panel in a paper screen door. Is that difficult to do?). It is the morning and he still hasn't arrived. She lies down with her child and at that point, the Consul and a woman come to the top of the hill. Sharpless talks to Suzuki and she notices the blonde Merican woman in the garden and puts two and two together. Suzuki for the critical thinking award.
Pinkerton has married an American woman named Kate. Kate has agreed to adopt Butterfly's child and bring him back to the States. Butterfly is therefore, for lack of better term, shit out of luck. Butterfly probably should have checked his Facebook status. Pinkerton walks into the house and sees that she has American flags up and a picture of him and gets crazy ex-girlfriend vibes and declares himself a coward and runs out. Butterfly wakes up and sees Sharpless in her living room and then notices the Merican woman in her yard. She asks if Pinkerton is dead and when she is told he is not, she too understands. See, were it me it would have gone like "Is he dead? No? Well now he will be! 3 years! 3 years?!?! Oh your retroactive child support payments are so going to kill you dead now!"
Kate apologizes and says that she will raise Butterfly's son as her own. Butterfly agrees to give over her son if and only if Pinkerton comes to pick his son up. #coparenting. Then Butterfly sings to her son and oh my God I am crying again. I cried my eyes out on Friday night and just thinking about it now is sending me into cry spasms. At one point I had to stop looking at the translation screen on the seat in front of me and just pretend she was talking about picking up milk or something because my heart hurt. She blindfolds her son and sends him outside and then slices her throat. Pinkerton dashes in but it is too late. And that is the end. And oh my God. Give me a minute to compose myself. All the feels. Blergh.
So there you have it. The story of Madame Butterfly. The show was truly amazing and I feel so lucky to have seen it in such a wonderful opera house. Next time, waterproof mascara because I just can't contain the sads.
I was lucky enough to grow up in a household that made sure we were exposed to all the classics; ballets, operas, symphonies, Bond films. My first opera was when I was 7 and it is probably my dad's favourite memory of me. He had tickets to a Wagner opera but his colleague couldn't make it so he made the decision to take me. I was over the moon. The opera started late so there would be no intermission and according to my dad, I sat there for more than 3 hours in a trance, loving every minute. Which is weird considering I have the attention span of gnat. I think I really loved it or I was going through a high fever that had made me catatonic and internally I was speaking in tongues.
I was spoiled as a kid when it came to good quality music. In Moscow, in my teens, I once saw Swan Lake 4 times over the span of 4 months and it got to the point where I wanted to scream "JUST SHOOT THE DAMN BIRD!" I also got to that point in my earlier teens about The Magic Flute while living in Vienna. Rich, spoiled kid problems.
So many years have passed and my Best of Maria Callas CD has just not been scratching that itch. Luckily, I was invited to join a friend to watch her husband (David Pershall- remember this name) perform in Madame Butterfly. When she asked me I think I might have yelled "Ah Hell yes!" On Friday I left work, ran home and put on my fancy clothes. The opera started at 7:30 and I was so excited to see it that I couldn't stop bouncing. While I have never seen Madame Butterfly, I have heard the music and I couldn't wait to see it live. And now, I bring you my interpretation of Madame Butterfly by Puccini.
It is the early 1900's, Nagasaki, Japan. An American naval officer (Pinkerton) is looking for a house for his soon to be bride (Butterfly). Let me just add that Butterfly is 15. In my country, we call that statutory rape but you know, OPERA! Pinkerton confides in the US Consul Sharpless that he is just marrying her to get a little somethin somethin until he can move back to the States and marry a real Merican girl. Sharpless is suitably disgusted at this plan. All I can think is that this Pinkerton guy goes through a lot effort for a one night stand; learns Italian, takes up opera singing, buys a house. Maybe that's how it worked in the olden days? Now we're lucky to even get free drinks. ANYWAY! Pinkerton talks about his douchey plan and then it is time for the wedding. Butterfly walks up the hill with her gal pals and is declaring herself to be the happiest girl in Japan. Sidenote: The Vienna Opera stage set for Madame Butterfly is hauntingly beautiful. Goosebumps. Madame Butterfly is infatuated with Pinkerton because she obviously has not Google stalked him and seen his hashtag on Twitter: #girlineveryport. There is a wedding, Butterfly is beaming, then there is a party but no party favours or DJ or photobooth. Butterfly needs Pinterest.
As the celebration takes place, her crotchety uncle who is a Buddhist priest shows up (worst wedding crasher ever) and shames her for converting to Christianity and renouncing her ancestors and is he wearing white? Oh no he diiin't. Wedding faux pas. Butterfly is understandably upset but Pinkerton, not wanting to ruin the mood, cheers her up and they sing and then there is the wedding night and well, Marvin Gaye was probably the soundtrack for that night. The curtain closes.
I had a glass of sekt during the intermission because why not.
The curtain opens and we are told that 3 years have passed and Butterfly is still waiting for Pinkerton to return. Shortly after their wedding, Pinkerton left with the promise he would return. Butterfly's maid Suzuki wants to say "Girlfriend, he used you" but plays the role of paid BFF well and supports her... kind of. Suzuki knows what is up and tells her that they have no mo monies. Butterfly is confident that Pinkerton will return.
The American Consul Sharpless shows up because he has a letter from Pinkerton. Girlfriend is so over the moon that Sharpless cannot bear to finish reading it to her. Girlfriend knows how to sing Italian opera so girlfriend should read letter herself but whatevs. At this point, a rich prince shows up and offers his hand in marriage to Butterfly but she says no because she is already married. Sharpless (who does way more than a Consul should ever have to do #yourtaxdollars) tries to gently persuade her to forget Pinkerton and she says she will never beg and that that would be worse than death. #foreshadowing. She gets veddy veddy angry at Sharpless and then apologizes and brings out PLOT TWIST... her son. Pinkerton doesn't know that he knocked her up before leaving and she asks the Consul to tell him.
At one point a canon is shot and Butterfly looks out to the harbour and sees the ship that Pinkerton uses to get foreign punani. She is excited to the nth degree and tells Suzuki that Pinkerton should be at their front door in an hour or two. She tells Suzuki to decorate the place with flowers for his arrival. I'm impressed she has continued to shave her legs for three years. If I only had an hour or two to get ready for a surprise visit from my husband, I would be running around in circles clutching a Lady Gillette. Anyway, the place is ready, her hair is purdy and she gets ready to wait. And she waits all night looking through a hole she has poked in the screen door (at this point I started thinking about how one goes about replacing a panel in a paper screen door. Is that difficult to do?). It is the morning and he still hasn't arrived. She lies down with her child and at that point, the Consul and a woman come to the top of the hill. Sharpless talks to Suzuki and she notices the blonde Merican woman in the garden and puts two and two together. Suzuki for the critical thinking award.
Pinkerton has married an American woman named Kate. Kate has agreed to adopt Butterfly's child and bring him back to the States. Butterfly is therefore, for lack of better term, shit out of luck. Butterfly probably should have checked his Facebook status. Pinkerton walks into the house and sees that she has American flags up and a picture of him and gets crazy ex-girlfriend vibes and declares himself a coward and runs out. Butterfly wakes up and sees Sharpless in her living room and then notices the Merican woman in her yard. She asks if Pinkerton is dead and when she is told he is not, she too understands. See, were it me it would have gone like "Is he dead? No? Well now he will be! 3 years! 3 years?!?! Oh your retroactive child support payments are so going to kill you dead now!"
Kate apologizes and says that she will raise Butterfly's son as her own. Butterfly agrees to give over her son if and only if Pinkerton comes to pick his son up. #coparenting. Then Butterfly sings to her son and oh my God I am crying again. I cried my eyes out on Friday night and just thinking about it now is sending me into cry spasms. At one point I had to stop looking at the translation screen on the seat in front of me and just pretend she was talking about picking up milk or something because my heart hurt. She blindfolds her son and sends him outside and then slices her throat. Pinkerton dashes in but it is too late. And that is the end. And oh my God. Give me a minute to compose myself. All the feels. Blergh.
So there you have it. The story of Madame Butterfly. The show was truly amazing and I feel so lucky to have seen it in such a wonderful opera house. Next time, waterproof mascara because I just can't contain the sads.
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