tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17999907.post115924952091442847..comments2024-01-24T08:24:14.555-05:00Comments on My Favorite Intermissions: YesMaury D'annatohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14136129943169313348noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17999907.post-1159323414628874242006-09-26T21:16:00.000-05:002006-09-26T21:16:00.000-05:00Aright, I weight in on moppet vs. puppet in a new ...Aright, I weight in on moppet vs. puppet in a new posting.Maury D'annatohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14136129943169313348noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17999907.post-1159320385530026442006-09-26T20:26:00.000-05:002006-09-26T20:26:00.000-05:00Having seen about 40 staged BUTTERFLIES over the y...Having seen about 40 staged BUTTERFLIES over the years, I have never seen the role of Trouble badly performed and certainly the interaction of a live child with his mother, with Sharpless and Suzuki and (depending on the staging) with his father at the final curtain makes for a more intense theatrical experience that an expressionless dummy. This was a gimmick in an otherwise attractive production.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17999907.post-1159319622312597142006-09-26T20:13:00.000-05:002006-09-26T20:13:00.000-05:00See, I liked the puppet. I actually thought the ma...See, I liked the puppet. I actually thought the manipulators of said puppet were, in a weird way, able to express more emotion than the often very wooden, nervous little child actors they stick up there. Then again, I generally find puppetry a fairly fascinating form of theater, so I was possibly predisposed to find validity in the choice. <BR/><BR/>Obviously I agree that Madama Mariposa herself was a total mess--and that the production is under no circumstances to be missed.Jonathanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04828036288155133139noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17999907.post-1159281701835876372006-09-26T09:41:00.000-05:002006-09-26T09:41:00.000-05:00The production was attractive enough but the puppe...The production was attractive enough but the puppet killed it. The relationship of mother and child is the real crux of the opera; it is abandoning her child that destroys her. If Pinkerton never came back, she still has the child as a reason to live. Without that, she has nothing. And that relationship was turned into a travesty in this version.<BR/><BR/>Gallardo sucked; without a good or even acceptable soprano all the pretty Japonalia in the world won't redeem the opera.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17999907.post-1159280662525013952006-09-26T09:24:00.000-05:002006-09-26T09:24:00.000-05:00anon: seriously, you didn't think it was at least ...anon: seriously, you didn't think it was at least pretty? I'm glad to have some confirmation I wasn't just being cranky with G-D.Maury D'annatohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14136129943169313348noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17999907.post-1159273667981088262006-09-26T07:27:00.000-05:002006-09-26T07:27:00.000-05:00G-D was the worst-sounding Butterfly of the dozens...G-D was the worst-sounding Butterfly of the dozens I have heard. Even the aged Licia, who I saw in the early 60s at the Old House, sang it better.<BR/><BR/>And the puppet. CHUCKY'S BACK!<BR/><BR/>Between G-D's monster vibrato and the grotesque child, the evening held no redeeming factor for me.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com