Santa Fe Opera / Recenzje

SANTA FE, U.S. -- Flashes of lightning lit the vast sky behind the Crosby Theater as the two protagonists sing of the stars twinkling in the beautiful night: "East can meet West/Two souls in the dark/Each seeing the other/As the other yearns to be seen." Stunning performances by Mark Stone as Rene Gallimard and Kangmin Justin Kim as Song Liling (as the Peking opera performer and the spy) capture the moral ambiguity and emotional complexity of two otherwise unappealing protagonists. This is particularly true of Song's aria "Awoke as a Butterfly" in Act Three, when, 10 years after Gallimard's departure from China, Song is ordered to demonstrate a continuing commitment to the revolution by moving to Paris to spy on him. As Song ruminates "I am a human who dreamt of being a butterfly. Then I awoke as a butterfly who dreams of being, of being human," the melody and harmony have gone far beyond where they started, and so has the audience's understanding of Song's sexual, political and emotional intentions.

Both play and opera were inspired by the notoriety surroundng the sexual relationship of a man working for the French diplomatic service in Beijing in the mid-1960s with a Chinese male actor who performed women’s roles in Chinese opera. The opera is a complex one, which moves backwards and forwards in time, but is always comprehensible and smooth-flowing. The story has three poles, around which sub-plots are centered – the Gallimard and Song Liling relationship, the Cultural Revolution’s operatives and the associated espionage they encourage, and the Parisian justice system. The historical background of play and opera are well-documented. Stone’s performance as Gallimard, among the longest operatic baritone roles ever performed, proved to a tour de force. From Gallimard’s first soliloquy in which he describes his lover as “the perfect woman”. Stone displays a firm grasp of his character’s demons, including a long-standing self-deception.

Santa Fe Opera took on steep challenges for the 2022 season. All five operas in the 38-performance summer schedule are new productions, including a world premiere. Several conductors and a long list of singers are making their house debuts. It’s a lot to put together, and this first week in August is the first opportunity to experience the five operas in a single week. M. Butterfly, composer Huang Ruo’s operatic version of the multiple-award-winning 1988 Broadway play by David Henry Hwang, was slated to debut in 2020 and delayed until now by COVID. It finally hit the stage on 30 July. Seen and heard in its second performance on Wednesday, the opera made an impact with dramatic sweep, terrific and sensitive characterizations and music that added more than just color to the story. London-based Baritone Mark Stone (who sang Sharpless in Welsh Opera’s Madama Butterfly in 2021), was indefatigable as Gallimard, singing in almost every scene through the three-hour opera. In the final scene, he reenacts Butterfly’s ritual suicide with aplomb and grace, the character finally acknowledging that in the relationship he was Butterfly not Pinkerton. As a musical coup de theatre, Song returns – too late – in a man’s suit singing ‘Butterfly! Butterfly!’, in a close adaption of the last notes of Puccini’s opera. Also impressive in supporting roles were Chinese mezzo-soprano Hongni Wu as Song’s spy handler and baritone Kevin Burdette as the French ambassador, both vivid creations of character and vocal flexibility. The company chorus distinguished itself as well, both as a snarky crowd amused by the scandal and as partygoers in the embassy receptions.

The Santa Fe Opera is back. After 2020, the first summer in its history without live opera, the company presented a shortened season of only thirty performances last year. This summer the company returns to its full five-opera slate, although without works by its founder’s favorites, Mozart and Strauss. Yet the mountaintop venue is looking once again like the nation’s premiere summer opera destination, beginning with the world premiere of a new opera, M. Butterfly, on Saturday night. If you thought Tosca was a “shabby little shocker,” as the late Joseph Kerman put it, this opera blasts far past it on its way over the top. Baritone Mark Stone crooned and howled with startling power as Gallimard, a punishing role featured in almost every scene in the opera. Even the level of sympathy he created by his sincere stage presence throughout the evening could not sustain the rather absurd ending. The character, putting on a kimono, makeup, and wig, recreated the death of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly by slitting his throat with a ceremonial sword. Korean-American countertenor Kangmin Justin Kim made an astounding Santa Fe debut as Song Liling. From his entrance, giving a passable rendition of Puccini’s “Un bel dì, vedremo,” Kim was utterly believable in his female persona. Kim’s vocal tone was sweet and feminine, and his acting courageous, concluding with a moment of full-frontal nudity when he revealed himself to Gallimard toward the end of Act III.