West Bay Opera / Ocene

It's a sign of great works that they reveal new ideas on repeated viewings — often, a new insight with each new performance. At a time of unsettling conflicts in Israel and Ukraine, West Bay Opera's straightforward production of "Madama Butterfly" reveals Puccini's opera as a profound indictment of colonization and imperialism.

West Bay Opera delighted its patrons October 15th by performing Puccini’s brilliant opera, Madama Butterfly the way it was meant to be performed. Sung in the original language, Italian, with the classic tragic libretto unchanged, this performance was spellbinding in its beauty and gut-wrenching in its emotion. The tragedy of the timeless libretto (English translations on screens were easy to see but not distracting) was felt by those of us lucky enough to be surrounded by some of the most beautiful voices in the world. The theater temperature was comfortable, but I must admit I had chills for much of the performance, evoked by the pure beauty of both the soprano and tenor voices.

Soprano Meredith Bloomfield...relates the tale of the Dutchman to her sailor’s-wife cohorts, giving a wide-eyed fascination to her performance, and declares that she means to be the instrument of the poor man’s salvation.

Dramatically and musically, Balonek met his match in soprano Meredith Bloomfield, who sang the role of Senta, the woman poised to deliver the seaman from his fate. At once wary and wonderstruck, the couple poured out their hopes, terrors, and frenzied accord in a vibrantly voluptuous second-act duet...Bloomfield’s acting was choice as well, her veil of modesty dropping away as the immersive possibilities of love began to emerge.

When José Luis Moscovich came onstage at Palo Alto’s Lucie Stern Theatre on Friday, May 20, the applause and cheers for West Bay Opera’s general director went on so long he had to sheepishly and repeatedly signal for silence. The audience celebration was well deserved. Friday’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame (or, The Queen of Spades) was a reunion, the company’s first staging before a live audience since the pandemic began.

Woodwinds and strings sing in gentle, back-and-forth conversation before other instruments begin to join, building into rolling climaxes of commanding brass and timpani and all leading to a sense of foreboding as projected on the walls before us are splashed, red blotches mingled in a flurried mix of numbers and symbols. Eventually queens appear from their deck of cards to dance about the stage in projected frenzy as the music once again shifts in nature. Black shadows and smoky clouds finally escort the Queen of Spades to rule in her projected state with the orchestra’s outstanding overture leaving us with a final sense of foreboding and unease.

The role of Leonora...was sung by the outstanding dramatic soprano Meredith Mecum, a Merola alumna now based in New York City. Her brilliant singing and sensitive portrayal of a woman aching with the uncertainty of her husband's fate make it easy to suspend disbelief in the implausible plot line.

In the title role, Meredith Mecum made an important West Bay debut, the clarion call of her powerful voice never diminished in one of opera’s most demanding roles. Her big aria, “Abscheulicher!” (Abominable monster), shook the rafters and moved the audience. Both Mecum and Turner sang “big,” but without showing any effort. Their triumphant love duet in the finale — “O namenlose Freude!” (Joy without name) — was exhilarating.