Tag Archives: Giacomo Puccini

Sep 20

“Madama Butterfly” Lives! With Sorrow, But She Lives 

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Butterfly (Karen Chia-Ling Ho) and her son Dolore (Neko Umphenor)

Presented by the Boston Lyric Opera
Directed by Phil Chan
Conducted by David Angus
Music by Giacomo Puccini
Libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa
Artistic Advising by Nina Yoshida Nelsen
Music Directed by David Angus
Set Design by Yu Shibagaki

September 14-24, 2023
Emerson Colonial Theatre
106 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02116
Boston Lyric Opera on Facebook

Critique by Gillian Daniels

BOSTON, Mass. – To live with sorrow is a hard thing, but it’s so often the condition of living. Madama Butterfly’s prologue gives the titular heroine something uncommon in the opera’s many revivals: life beyond tragedy. Before the show begins, we watch two older, Asian women in 1983 Hawaii, played by Keiko Orrall and Donna Tsufura. They decorate a cake and, afterward, one takes out a colorful blanket and a child’s stuffed animal. It’s clear she’s remembering something, and the stage is the platform where we’ll watch her memories unfold. The resulting tragedy is both lovely and terrible, a successful reframing of the classic opera that would move the coldest heart to tears. Continue reading →

Feb 13

Like Devils Over an Open Flame: “Sacre” by Circa

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Circa performers in “Sacre.” O Robert Torres for CSB

Presented by Celebrity Series of Boston
Commissioned by Merrigong Theatre Company.
Co-produced by La Comete
Created by Yaron Lifschitz and the Circa Ensemble
Based on Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring)
Music by Philippe Bachman & Igor Stravinsky
Directed by Yaron Lifschitz

Feb. 9-11, 2023
Boch Center Shubert Theatre
265 Tremont St
Boston, MA 02116

Review by Kitty Drexel

Production warning: This production uses theatrical haze, smoke, and strobe effects. There are sections where the music will be loud.

Boston, MA — Circa contemporary circus’ Sacre is to the circus what Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du Printemps) is to classical music. History has refined their cultural significance. Neither are intended for children or the faint of heart. 

The gatekeepers of classical music remember the May 29th, 1913 premiere of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring for its violent riot at the Paris Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. While there are no official accounts, personal accounts from opera composer Giacomo Puccini and Le Figaro critic, composer, and musicologist Henri Quittard (whose infamy lives on to this day), described the production in terms of its barbarism and inelegance.  Continue reading →