MADMAN BUTTERFLY

THE DISTRESSING NEWS THAT BRITAIN is about to go to war again and that the nation of Japan is about to be thrust into a nuclear meltdown sometime before next Tuesday, with radioactive winds sweeping southwards and skirting the Pacific ring of fire, coupled with the fact that Portugal is about to collapse around my ears in an economic and financial meltdown of its own, have all forced me to turn – as always – to refuge in culture.

OPERA IS WITHOUT DOUBT the only true source of entertainment for a gentleman of standing, and so I have spent a goodly amount of my recently-acquired leisure time (having sacked my incompetent girl Friday for chewing gum) listening to my old favourites. To my mind the most thrilling of all is Giordano’s Andrea Chénier, particularly its Un dì all’azzuro spazio as sung by Franco Corelli, possibly the highest point in the music of love.

HOWEVER, TODAY’S TECHNOLOGY has revealed to me that there have been recent new versions in two of my favourite works, which are Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and the operetta The Desert Song by Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein II. Always interested in providing valid information to my readers, I would like to outline the plot of the first of these remarkable music events.

Madama Butterfly 2011

Act 1

1. E soffitto e pareti. As the curtain rises, Hillary Pinkerton, a U.S. Naval Officer on USS Abraham Reagan, is inspecting a small house, which sits on a hill and overlooks the bay. Pinkerton has found a house for herself and her new husband, Naoto Kan, the local Prefect, nicknamed Ciao Ciao Yen. At first Hillary woos Yen and promises eternal happiness. Yen is thrilled to be an American by marriage now, and as he surveys the beautiful landscape in front of the house he sings the powerful aria Nagasaki no more! Now Beisaboru! However, Ciao Ciao Yen’s manservant Suzuki warns him that Hillary’s attentions may be short lived.

2. Amore o grillo. Pinkerton admits to a friend that she does not know whether she is really in love or just infatuated, but she is bewitched with Yen’s innocent charm.

3. Bimba, Bimba, non piangere. (This begins the famous long love duet, which ends Act I.) Pinkerton tells Yen that that "All your relatives and all the priests in Japan are not worth the tears from your loving, beautiful eyes." Yen smiles through his tears, "You mean that? I won’t cry any more. And I do not worry about their curses, because your words sound so sweet." They hear Suzuki offstage, saying his evening prayers.

4. Vogliatemi bene. (The long duet concludes.) Yen pleads with Pinkerton to "Love me, please." He asks whether it is true that, in foreign lands, a man will catch a butterfly and pin its wings to a table. Pinkerton admits that it is true but explains, "Do you know why? So that he’ll not fly away." She embraces Yen and says, "I have caught you. You are mine." Yen replies, "Yes, for life." Yet Hillary leaves for parts unknown.

Act 2

5. Un bel dì. Three years have passed, and in this, the opera's most famous aria, Yen says that, "one beautiful day", they will see a puff of smoke on the far horizon. Then a ship will appear and enter the harbor. He will not go down to meet Hillary but will wait on the hill for her to come.

6. Ah! M’ha scordata? Yen is given a letter by Sharpless, the US Consul in Japan, who tells him that Hillary has found a new lifetime partner, Obama-San, and she is now in China, where she is doing “much business”, singing the famous aria Molti Yuan per me. Yen refuses to believe this at first, until one day he sees an economic newspaper headline showing the Nikkei stock exchange ratings compared to those of Shanghai. He is distraught, crying “Listen! Listen to my sad song, Take pity!” and says to Sharpless that without the love of Hillary he prefers “Death! Death! Rather would I cut short my life! Ah! Death!"

Act 3

7. Io so che alle sue pene. Hillary and Obama receive news that Naoto Kan Yen and his entire family, as well as many other inhabitants of his Prefecture in Nagasaki, have been stricken by a mysterious illness and are unable to work. Money is running out for them and they desperately need help from “the big world”.

8. Addio, fiorito asil. Pinkerton and Obama at first consider helping Kan, with Obama singing Yes, we Kan, but advice from a chorus of journalists at the New York Financial Times persuade them to “keep out of it.” Pinkerton remains deep in thought.

9. Con onor muore. Yen, distraught and overwhelmed by his illness and the financial disaster affecting the citizens in his Prefecture decides: "Who cannot live with honor must die with honor." He takes a knife from a ceremonial cabinet and walks behind a screen. The knife clatters to the floor as Yen emerges, staggering. From outside the house, Pinkerton cries, "Yen! Yen!" and rushes in - but it is too late. He is dead

NEXT: THE DESERT SONG 2011