The Florentine Opera Company turned 75 this season, making it the sixth-oldest professional opera in the United States. Like many regional companies, the Florentine was once obliged to serve its art like a modest handmaiden, not encroaching upon the prestige of the august houses of La Scala, the Metropolitan and Covent Garden, but presenting solid productions for local audiences within their budgetary means. But as the performing arts have become more of a world community, more possibilities have opened for the presentation of opera. Artists perform on many stages and enjoy wider exposure. They are willing to venture into new projects, often with surprisingly refreshing results.
"The reason I was persuaded to come here was the reputation of this company," says William Florescu, who moved to Milwaukee from upstate New York in 2005 to assume the role of the Florentine's general director. "We're well regarded nationally and have a history of being financially sound."
Even as it works to develop young singers, the Florentine has benefited from opportunities to work with the best talent and the higher standards demanded by regional American audiences. Its 2007 production of Salome was better staged, better performed, better sung and better danced (with not one but two superb Salomes) than the recent live Met telecast and the highly touted Chicago Lyric production. The split-second nude scene that concludes the dance was an added Florentine bonus. Pavarotti's famous La Scala d%uFFFDbut in Aida seemed curiously lackluster and sluggish compared to the Florentine's superbly sung and every bit as lavishly staged 2006 production. Milwaukee's exquisite cast included Met singer Angela Brown in the title role.
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This season opens with Madama Butterfly, one of the world's most popular operas and one of the greatest. Helming the production will be Dejan Miladinovic, a Serbian opera and theater director with an admirable track record at the Florentine. "We're using a simple set-it's a character piece, not a costume production," Florescu says. "Dejan has an interesting way of looking at things. There's no danger of his Madama Butterfly seeming stale."
Enlightening the Drama
Puccini's music is so psychologically transparent that the listener can absorb the action by listening to the score without benefit of dialogue or visuals and with only a rudimentary knowledge of the story. Madama Butterfly is a wonderful opera for performers capable of nuance. Puccini weaves a constant stream of underlying leitmotifs that change rapidly, always yielding melodic riches to illuminate the character's emotional state even before the character sings, motivating the action by enlightening the drama with a constant stream of melody. These beautifully sustained phrases underlie the action but change constantly, giving each character a unique musical dimension. Each phrase further fleshes out the character's mood.
The long duets between the na%uFFFDve Japanese woman, Cio-Cio-San, and Pinkerton, the American cad, are luscious and glorious. But a sudden drumbeat interrupts her hopeful expectations in the dramatic second act, changing the course of the music for the first time into a heavier major mode as she is told that Pinkerton may never return. Hints of ritual suicide throughout the score are now predominant as Cio-Cio-San's optimism wanes. The haunting off-stage chorus as the ship approaches hearkens strongly to Debussy, but Puccini lingers longingly with his own gentle effects until muted horns tell us that her sinking dread has become reality as she sees Pinkerton's American wife. Here the music achieves an ominous stasis as the stillness of growing resolution penetrates Cio-Cio-San's sorrow until a fiercely Japanese-flavored outburst announces her intentions. The riveting finale, the Japanese ritual suicide, was never to be matched with such noble poignancy again by Puccini in his later operas.
"It's easy to make Pinkerton a cardboard villain," Florescu says. "We're going to bring out the nuances in the characters, to flesh them out. When you combine great singing and acting, opera becomes the most exciting of all art forms."
The Florentine Opera Company's Madama Butterfly will be performed Nov. 21-23 at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts.
