Recenze profilu
6This was partly due to the excellence of the cast members, who managed not only to relate to one another while standing in front of their music stands but to create believable characters. Continually impressive was William Burden in the title role, displaying a sweet tenor that took on a heroic ring in the climaxes and drawing a compelling, chameleonic character throughout. Heidi Stober was the vocally radiant Anne Trulove, Peter Coleman-Wright the subtle but sinister Nick Shadow, and mezzo Nancy Maultsby a foxy Baba the Turk. Kevin Langan, Judith Christin and Joseph Gaines were excellent in smaller roles.
The trio of baritone Daniel Belcher and tenors Julius Ahn and Joseph Gaines as Ping, Pang and Pong stole the show with well-choreographed antics, detailed characterizations and an arresting comedic touch. Singing and dancing in long-johns, embossed with Chinese printing, capped with whimsically anachronistic headgear and twirling umbrellas, their quasi soft-shoe "Ho una casa nell'Honan" was a brief but welcome diversion.
Předchozí recenze výroby
1The new staging of "Madama Butterfly" offered by Pittsburgh Opera for the first time on Saturday night employs some unusual musical and dramatic turns on the path to the excruciating pathos composer Giacomo Puccini created in this popular opera. The production features an effective cast led by soprano Maria Luigia Borsi, who gave a stunningly dramatic and well sung performance of the title role, Cio-Cio San. While the production originated with Boston Lyric Opera and the costumes were designed for Utah Symphony and Opera, Crystal Manich's new stage direction had great impact and was mostly convincing.Mika Shigematsu was superb as Cio-Cio San's servant Suzuki, a fine singer with personality who showed surprising spunkiness in her first interactions with Pinkerton and Sharpless, the U.S. Consul in Nagasaki, Japan, where the opera takes place in the late 19th century. Tenor Bryan Hymel as Pinkerton showed his vocal strength most impressively at the end of the opera in the brief passage after Cio-Cio San has committed suicide. Secondary roles were generally well handled, including Joseph Gaines' colorful marriage broker Goro and Dwayne Croft's agonized Sharpless. Manich was masterly in presenting the dramatic confrontation between Cio-Cio San and her community after she renounces Japanese culture to become an American wife. She was imaginative in using the minimalist set and achieved strong character definition and interactions throughout. Cindy Limauro's lighting design was exceptionally creative, adding many looks through geometrically highlighted areas of the stage and changes of lighting angle and tint.
