Thw Welsh National Opera's Spring 2013 programme is entitled, 'FreeSpirits' and includes three operas, one of which is Madame Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini. The programme states,
' In 1887 Pierre Loti published Madame Chrysantheme, an account, drawn from his own experiences and observations while living in Japan, of a Frenchman making what he considered to be a temporary marriage with a young Japanese girl. This in turn, inspired the American writer, John Luther Long to write a story, Madame Butterfly, and from a combination of the two, the playwright David Belasco devised a play which was a major Broadway hit at the start of the twentieth century and inspired Puccini's opera.'
The opera has become probably one of the most well known ones, with moving songs like,''One Fine Day.' This production, first perfromed by the WNO in 1978 has Cheryl Barker playing Cio Cio San (Madame Butterfly), and Gwyn Hughes Jones as Lieutenant BF Pinkerton. They both have fantastic voices and it was a wonderful peformance overall, but I just couldn't suspend belief that Cheryl Barker could possibly be 15. She looks more like 40- a middle-aged mother rather than a virgin bride. It was the same in La Boheme, where the Bohemians are supposed to be in their twenties, but sported paunches like men in their fifties.
Their blonde-haired child, called 'Trouble' was adorable, at times scratching his itchy backside as Cio Cio San sang in Italian an inch or two from his face. He was supposed to be between two and three years old, but was probably four or five. I really worry about the long-term effect it may have on a child actor, playing the child of a suicidal and desperate mother, who kills herself, while he sits blindfolded at the front of the stage. I worried about the child in Medea for similar reasons. I wonder if any research has been done about the potential for post-traumatic stress on child actors in later life. Or, do children just see being in a play or opera such as this as make believe and game playing? I really hope so.
