Puccini 'meets' Lady Gaga in Anton Juan's 'Madame Butterfly'

In director Anton Juan’s production of the timeless opera “Madame Butterfly” showing at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) on June 22 and 23, it can be said that Italian composer Giacomo Puccini finally “meets” pop icon Lady Gaga.  

This is in the person of avant-garde Filipino sculptor-artist-designer Leeroy New who was charged to do the production design and costumes for “Madame Butterfly” mounted this year by theater doyenne Jay Valencia-Glorioso’s MusicArtes Inc. in cooperation with the CCP. 

 

New and another Filipino designer, Kermit Tesoro, designed, sculpted, and molded Lady Gaga’s famous black muscle dress.

 

Full production of “Madame Butterfly,” one of the most-performed operas globally, was last staged in Manila in 1994.

 

Juan, who now divides his time teaching in France and the United States, is in his usual visionary self in conceptualizing and directing “Madame Buttefly,” which is said to have been inspired or based on incidents in Nagasaki in southern Japan in the early 1890s. 

 

Noting that there is a similarity to the story lines of “Miss Saigon” and “Madame Butterfly,” Juan transported the 1890s sad love story between an American lieutenant and a Japanese geisha to the everyday lives of Filipinas, hoping to better their lives through marriage with foreigners.

 

“The story of ‘Madame Butterfly’ is like our ‘hanggang pier na lang’ (up to the port only). It happens in (the former US military air base) Clark. It happens in a café in Makati. Jason left Medea. There is a Filipina woman in a café in Makati aspiring to marry a foreigner,” Juan said in a press conference.

 

Once considered the enfant terrible of Philippine theater, the multi-awarded and decorated Juan narrated his “Madame Butterfly” using the memory of the child fathered by the American lieutenant, B.F. Pinkerton, who will be played by Mexican tenor Dante Alcala. 

 

The coveted role of “Madame Butterfly” or Cio-Cio San, the beautiful 15-year-old geisha, will be essayed by award-winning soprano Mako Nishimoto.

 

“Everything happens inside the mind of the child of Cio-Cio San and Pinkerton decades before the outbreak of the Pacific War and the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. It is about memory. I am working with the idea of memory,” Juan said.  

Opera revival  

In the same press conference, CCP president Raul M. Sunico said the cultural community in the Philippines looks forward to the revival of opera tradition in the country. “We are having three opera productions this year. Based on the last opera mounted at CCP, ‘La Traviata,’ it seems that opera has a good future in the country.” 

 

Giuseppi Verdi’s “La Traviata” was staged last March while Gioachino Rossini’s “Barber of Seville” will be shown on July 13-14, also at the CCP. 

 

Josefina Tan, chair of MusicArtes Inc., said “the cost of mounting an opera is prohibitive, sponsorship is hard to come by, the audience is limited, but we promise you our ‘Madame Butterfly’ will be the musical event of the year.” 

 

People close to the production estimated the cost of the two-night staging of “Madame Butterfly” to be at least P7.5 million. 

 

Tan added their group seeks to promote classical music appreciation in the country and is “deeply honored” to be collaborating with the CCP in staging “Madame Butterfly.” 

 

Acclaimed Filipina soprano Camille Lopez-Molina will play the role of Suzuki, Cio-Cio San’s maid, while international baritone Andrew Fernando is Sharpless, Pinkerton’s buddy. Soprano Flame Flores and tenor Ivan Neri are understudies for Cio-cio San and Pinkerton, respectively.

 

Singaporean conductor Maestro Lim Yau leads the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra in the two gala performances at the CCP Main Theater, while Maestro Francisco Feliciano is music director. 

 

Renowned lighting expert John Batalla creates the lighting effects and design, with video design provided by Pat Valera.

 

Top Filipino singers support the cast namely, international choral master Jonathan Velasco, Singapore Lyric Opera performer Lemuel dela Cruz, John Glenn Gaerlan, Nonon Baang, Jun Jaranilla, Viva Voce members, and graduates of the UP College of Music, UST Conservatory, and St. Scholastica’s College. –KG, GMA News

 

For details and inquiries, contact the CCP Box Office at (02) 832-3704; MusicArtes Inc. at (02) 895.8098; and all Ticketworld outlets.