Word: madama
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...vows to save her from the coming chaos. His heart is good, but his head is clouded: he has no thought for the practical realities of her future in an alien land, only for the sweet moment of his own chivalry. Even that fails. In this revamping of Madama Butterfly, Chris cannot get to Kim before heading home...
...David Henry Hwang was a student at Stanford University, he and fellow residents of the "Asian-American theme dorm" used to refer derisively to any female peer who seemed overly deferential, too traditionally feminine, as "doing a Butterfly." Hwang, for one, had no actual complaint against Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly. In fact, he had never seen or even heard it. But what he had gleaned of the plot -- about a Japanese girl who kills herself for love of a faithless American sailor -- summed up for him many of the stereotypes Westerners imposed on Orientals...
...that would keep his audience at a comfortable distance from the sexually threatening story line. One day, as he was driving past a Los Angeles record store, he recalled the opera whose title he and his friends so scornfully invoked in college. "I hit on the idea of deconstructing Madama Butterfly, and popped in on impulse. As soon as I looked at the libretto, I knew it would be fine." He finished a draft in six weeks, in Los Angeles and then in France, where he had gone to mark his first wedding anniversary...
...played the title role in Puccini's Madama Butterfly every year since she was 19 years old. Inevitably, Soprano Renata Scotto has developed some strong ideas about the role. Now she has a chance to test them: next month, in a revived production of Butterfly, Scotto will become the first diva ever to direct herself at the Met. "I'm really looking forward to seeing the role from another perspective," she admits. There is a disadvantage to wearing two hats, of course. "I'm used to relaxing in the dressing room when I'm not in rehearsals, or during...
Mitchell's triumph has come just in time. In any generation, the number of sopranos who can superbly handle the most demanding dramatic roles in the Italian repertory (Verdi's Leonora or Aida, Puccini's Tosca or Madama Butterfly) is always small; these days it is minuscule. Montserrat Caballe, 49, has the right combination of fire and ice to make for a memorable Tosca, for example, but she often cancels performances. Price, 55, still makes occasional forays into what was once her strongest territory, but she wisely no longer sings as frequently as she once did. Enter...