The Dallas Opera 2021-2022 - Madame Butterfly/Flight

9 MADAME BUTTERFLY onstage with not a single word spoken . The play left Puccini devastated. Belasco later wrote that when the composer met him backstage and asked for permission to create an operatic adaptation, “I agreed at once, and told him he could do anything he liked with the play and make any sort of contract, because it is not possible to discuss business arrangements with an impulsive Italian who has tears in his eyes and both his arms round your neck.” In Cio-Cio-San, Puccini created a tour de force for the leading lady. It takes, first of all, a full-bodied, wonderfully colorful, house-filling voice, with the warmth for the love music and the soaring power for the climaxes. It also needs stamina (the soprano is offstage for only about 15 minutes of the opera’s three acts). And that stamina isn’t just vocal, but also emotional, given the passionate intensity of Cio-Cio- San’s feelings from start to finish. Then, of course, there’s the ability to create a style of movement that can convincingly bring the character’s geisha past to mind. Ultimately, everything the singer does onstage should draw the audience into the reality of Cio-Cio-San’s situation. TDO has a very special Cio-Cio-San in Latonia Moore, whose Puccini and Verdi roles have earned huge international acclaim (including Cio-Cio-San at the Metropolitan Opera, San Diego Opera, and Dresden’s Semperoper). You may have witnessed her magnificent artistry in the recent Met HD transmissions of Porgy and Bess and Fire Shut Up in My Bones . Portraying the ardent but caddish Pinkerton is handsome, clarion-voiced lyric tenor Evan LeRoy Johnson, who’s currently impressing audiences and critics at the world- renowned Bavarian State Opera in Munich. The ever-devoted Suzuki and the compassionate Sharpless will be a joy to hear in the performances of two up-and-coming artists, mezzo- soprano Kirstin Chávez and baritone Michael Adams. With Michael Yeargan’s exquisite sets and costumes, Laurie Feldman’s authoritative direction, and conducting by music director Emmanuel Villaume that will brilliantly unite intimacy with passion, the stage is set for Madame Butterfly to thrill audiences once again in Dallas. • A writer, lecturer, teacher, and coach, Roger Pines has contributed articles to every major opera-related publication in America, as well as to seven prestigious recording labels. Since 2006 he has appeared annually as a panelist on the Met broadcasts’ “Opera Quiz.” PHOTOS: TERRENCE MCCARTHY