The bright lights of a modern day, tacky Bangkok replace 19th century Nagasaki as the setting for this famous tragic opera in a new production at The King’s Head Theatre. OperaUpCLose is the resident company at the King’s Head and has the mission of bringing opera to life to a wide audience, through new English translations in an intimate setting. And this has been achieved here with a vibrant reinterpretation of a classic.In this retelling, Geisha Cio-Cio San becomes Butterfly, a Thai ladyboy who craves the love and protection of Pinkerton, a visiting American pilot. Butterfly is surrounded by an entourage of trashy ladyboys who, along with their pimp uncle Bonzo, renounce her when she gives herself up to the American. The ingenious libretto, by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, is fresh and feels modern but manages to keep impressively close to the essence of the original. It’s surprising how many of the nuances of the classic narrative are retained and how well it fits with the modern story. The words resonate with tragedy by the end, as they should, but there is an entertaining lightness discernable in the first act: Goro praises Pinkerton’s new apartment, ‘It’s great for parties!’ Pinkerton: ‘That’s awesome! Really awesome! (Noticing some dodgy electrics) Those wires there?’ Goro: (Hastily) Decorative!’
The Bangkok ladyboy theme could have been gimmicky if it were not so well conceived; the story really does hold together and brings out the tragedy of the original to a modern audience. Of course, the marriage between an American and a Japanese Geisha would have been out of the ordinary 150 years ago, and his abandonment of her a much more destructive act that it would perhaps be today. By transforming Butterfly into a transvestite, the relationship with Pinkerton is invested with some of the original exoticness and her abandonment by him and her pimp really exposes her to the poverty and desperation of the Thai underworld. Butterfly’s love for Pinkerton is placed second to her desire to reach America; she isn’t a romantic who has fallen hopelessly in love with the Western man, rather she sees him as her only escape route from a life she will eventually be broken by. All she has to look forward to is the fate of her sister, a premature death from Aids.
This is how Butterfly ends up with a child, not her own, but her adopted nephew who has an inherited sickness from his mother. Although this is a clever and logical reinterpretation of the original, the use of a puppet to stand in for the child is distracting. Operated by three stage hands, I found it visually disruptive even though the cast handled it convincingly. Similarly, the presence of a dog on stage, in the handbag of a ladyboy, was an unnecessary diversion from the action on stage and, what with canine super-sensitive hearing, I was concerned that it may have been unkind to subject him to the powerful voices of the singers at such close range.
But it was the closeness that I most enjoyed with this production. It was a real treat to be so near to a great cast of talented performers. Margaret Cooper deserves special mention in the role of Butterfly; she invested each word with heartfelt emotion and her voice was a pleasure to listen to, making the proverbial hairs stand up on the back of my neck when delivering the famous Un bel di aria. The standard of singing was universally and impressively high across the cast, and despite the unavoidable problems of staging in a small space with a low budget, this is a production which brings something excitingly new to a familiar classic.
Runs until 23rd January
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