Opera authenticity

Bartholomew, the production’s stage director, had hired or recommended hiring Sato for other productions of Giacomo Puccini’s famous opera.

“She brings wonderful vocal artistry. She’s the real thing,” Bartholomew said he recalled advising the Fargo-Moorhead Opera Company some years ago about Sato.

So when Opera Southwest decided to stage “Butterfly,” he suggested Sato to the company’s music director/conductor Anthony Barrese.

“I said I’d love this kind of actress-singer in the role of Cio-Cio San as opposed to an American singer with an Italianate voice trying to be Japanese,” Bartholomew said he told Barrese. “She is Japanese with the vocal equipment to do it, to bring authenticity to the role.”

	If you go WHAT: Giacomo Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly,” sung in Italian with English supertitles WHEN: 2 p.m. March 17. Repeats 7:30 p.m. March 19 and March 22 and 2 p.m. March 24 WHERE: National Hispanic Cultural Center, 1701 Fourth SW HOW MUCH: Tickets range from $10 to $80 and are available in advance at the NHCC box office, by calling 724-4771 or 243-0591 or by visiting www.operasouthwest.org or at the door. Senior, student and group discounts available

The company hired Sato, a Japanese-born American, for the production, which opens March 17. It is the first of four performances of the Opera Southwest production at the National Hispanic Cultural Center.

Cio-Cio San, who is known as Butterfly, is Sato’s signature role. She has performed it 15 times; she has also sung leads in other popular operas.

“Butterfly goes from the top to the bottom of life in three hours. You are in the happiest moment to the bottom. Emotionally, it is so exhausting,” said Sato, who teaches voice at State University of New York at Purchase.

“In rehearsal, you can save your voice, but you can’t save the emotion that has to be there.”

The opera tells the tragic story of the title character. It is set in the Japanese port city of Nagasaki at the turn of the 19th century.

In a tale of East-meets-West, Butterfly marries the young American naval officer Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton.

But Pinkerton insensitively informs Sharpless, the American consul, that he can pull out of the marital contract anytime he wants.

Tenor Joshua Kohl sings Pinkerton and baritone Stephen Hartley sings Sharpless.

The teenage Butterfly declares her love for Pinkerton. She affirms that love by secretly becoming a Christian. When her uncle, a Buddhist priest, learns of her conversion, he is enraged. Pinkerton seems unmoved by how deeply Butterfly feels for him. He wants to marry an American.

Kathryn Cowdrick, top, is Suzuki, Butterfly’s maid, Kaleb Cox plays Butterfly’s son Trouble and Kaori Sato is the abandoned Cio-Cio San. (Dean Hanson/Journal)

The opera moves forward three years. Butterfly – and Trouble (Kaleb Cox), her son by Pinkerton – are waiting for Pinkerton’s ship to return. She doesn’t know that Pinkerton has already abandoned her, that he is returning to Japan with his American bride.

“Butterfly is such a culturally-oriented role and sopranos in Japan are often typecast for that role,” Sato said. “I will promise I will be the special one. I bring something that is different from other Japanese Butterflies.”

Kohl covered the role of Pinkerton with the Dallas Opera, singing four performances in a slightly reduced version at student matinees.

“‘Butterfly’ is such an affecting piece of music and theater,” he said. “While working with my vocal coach in New York, I stopped and said, ‘It’s such great music you can’t help but get wrapped up in it.’”

Kohl said some people, including other tenors, think of Pinkerton as a bad guy, while others believe he makes some poor choices and ruins someone else’s life.

Kohl is taking a more nuanced approach.

“He’s not a total bastard of a guy,” Kohl said. “But he lives in the moment and says things that aren’t quite right and does things that aren’t right. I don’t think he intends for Butterfly to die, but it’s through his actions that she does.”

Pinkerton obviously doesn’t take the time to understand Japanese culture. What this sailor is apparently interested in, Kohl said, is a quick sexual encounter.

Barrese said Kohl is on the cusp of seeing his career explode.

“I think that in a couple of years we won’t be able to get him,” Barrese said.

He described Kohl as a handsome, strapping young singer.

“He’s an all-American boy. You look at him and say ‘He can’t be a tenor. He doesn’t look like a singer. He looks like a baseball player,’” Barrese said.

Kohl, in fact, played on his high school baseball team.

Butterfly, also known as Cio-Cio San, is a signature role for opera singer Kaori Sato. (Dean Hanson/Journal)