While it is true that CD buyers really don’t need another recording of this opera, there’s always room for one that is magnificent, special, and enlightening. This one isn’t it, but if we had been at the Australian Opera on the August evening in 1997 when this was recorded, we would have left very satisfied. Patrick Summers wisely leads the music near the start with a light touch, and in a very un-Karajan-like fashion, he allows the drama in the orchestra to grow with the plot. In fact, by Butterfly’s death scene we’re in symphonic territory, but it’s apt and enormously effective.
The Australians play well. Cheryl Barker’s voice has grown in the 10 years since she proved so effective as Mimi in Baz Luhrmann’s marvelous Bohème, and she now truly has the heft needed for Cio-Cio-San. She takes the high D-flat at her entrance with ease and grace but has plenty of power in reserve for the ship-sighting and death scene. The voice is attractive as well. She’s a better Butterfly after Act 1; she doesn’t attempt any little-girl sounds for the 15-year-old (no argument there–only Callas, Scotto, and dal Monte actually get away with it). Without the tonal luster, and with more security at the top, she’s in the Tebaldi-as-Butterfly mode, which is not a bad thing to be, although I find it (as with Tebaldi) oddly unmoving. But this is not to denigrate her–she’s very good indeed.
Jay Hunter Morris is a big, lyric Pinkerton with a nice, even sound, intelligence, and plenty of ping to his high notes. The interpretation is sort of cookie-cutter-cad-turned-regretful, but so are just about all Pinkertons. Douglas McNicol’s Sharpless is impressive in the letter scene with Butterfly and his baritone is rich and warm, and Ingrid Silveus blends well with Cheryl Barker without standing out. The recording is a bit overbright, the characters turn away from the microphone at times, and the balance is not what it should be. The Humming Chorus is completely inaudible–it sounds like an orchestral interlude. And so, if someone gives you this Butterfly as a gift, be grateful; if you’re going out to buy one, stick with Callas, Scotto, or Freni. [10/8/2003]
