I attended the premiere of a new production of Madame Butterfly last night at the San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera presents new co-production of Madame Butterfly (sfopera.com)
Madame Butterfly is considered a masterpiece
and indeed, even today, the opera carries an emotional punch.
The San Francisco Opera production was especially poignant for me because it was the first time that I saw a production with two Asian women singing the lead roles of the Japanese Cio Cio San and her handmaid Suzuki. Most of the productions of Madame Butterfly tend to have white women singing the leads. This has led to allegations of orientalism being applied to the performance of Madame Butterfly.
However, this production of Madame Butterfly had Korean women (Karah Son and Hyona Kim) singing the lead roles and the director of the opera orchestra was a Korean (Eun Sun Kim). As the opera progressed, with these women in charge, the story began to shift in my mind from being a story about the tragic 19th century encounter between an American sailor and a Japanese woman to a twentieth century encounter between American military men and Korean women. And the Madame Butterfly like consequences of such encounters resonate even to today.
Almanac | Preview of PBS documentary on Korean Adoption | Season 2022 | Episode 36 | PBS
Korean War babies still searching for G.I. fathers (usatoday.com)
I found myself reflecting on these current issues while watching the tragedy of Act III and I found myself wanting everyone to see the San Francisco Opera production of Madame Butterfly.
Peace,
Everett "Skip" Jenkins
Fairfield, California
June 4, 2023
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