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A Haunting Madama Butterfly Raleigh
North Carolina Opera
01/30/2026 - & February 1, 2026
Giacomo Puccini: Madama Butterfly
Caitlin Gotimer (Cio-Cio-San), Eric Taylor (Lt. B.F. Pinkerton), Lisa Chavez (Suzuki), Efraín Solís (Sharpless), Johnathan White (Goro), Ryan Smith (Yamadori), Christian Blackburn (The Bonze), Coleridge Nash (Imperial Commissioner), Isabella Stollenmaier (Kate Pinkerton), Thomas Keefe (Registrar), Emery Hedges (Sorrow)
North Carolina Opera Chorus, Jeanie Wozencraft-Ornellas (Chorus Master), North Carolina Opera Orchestra, Arthur Fagen (Conductor)
Francesca Zambello (Stage Director), Michael Yeargan (Scenic Designer), Anita Yavich (Costume Designer), Robert Wierzel (Lighting Designer), Kelley Rourke (Projection Designer)
L. Chavez, C. Gotimer, E. Solís (© Eric Waters)
Opera is, historically speaking, comprised of disparate elements: a large part, spectacle; another, vocal; and another still, that of memory, both traditional as well as anecdotal.
One such famous—and oft-quoted—bit of operatic lore details the genesis of Giacomo Puccini’s ever‑popular Madama Butterfly.
In London for the 1900 British premiere of his newest work, Tosca, the composer, always on the lookout for his next libretto, found it in a stage production of David Belasco’s play Madame Butterfly.
Despite understanding very little English, Puccini immediately responded to the plight of the hapless geisha who lives and dies by a code of honor and integrity. Puccini, that master manipulator of operatic emotion, recognized that the play’s universal thematic appeal would be a perfect fit for the opera stage, and set about acquiring the rights. The opera’s 1904 world premiere at La Scala, Milan, proved one of the greatest fiascos in all of anecdotal memory... that is, until Puccini reworked the score. But that is another operatic anecdote for yet another time.
A capacity audience marveled anew at this backstory during a pre‑performance lecture at the Martin Marietta Center in downtown Raleigh on a cold January 30th evening, followed by North Carolina Opera’s production of Puccini’s beloved nipponese drama.
Opera is a costly business and, with a short season, North Carolina Opera must work ever harder to attract audiences. This they cleverly manage, mixing the tried‑and‑true (Mozart, Verdi, Puccini, occasional Wagner) with fringe fare, from Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain to local premieres of Verdi’s youthful masterpiece Ernani and, during this past fall, Massenet’s rarely-encountered Cendrillon.
Led by its enterprising General Director Eric Mitchko, the company, now in its 16th year, can be relied upon to provide an elevated experience—the company mission statement seeking to make the operatic destination an all-inclusive one—while their most recent effort, the production of Puccini’s Butterfly under discussion, certainly proves that point.
Cio-Cio-San (hereafter called Butterfly), has been referred to as an Italian Brünnhilde—in a nod to the heroine of Wagner’s Ring cycle—because she, too, rarely leaves the stage, singing powerfully while running the full gamut of emotions. Comfortable shoes are a must, along with a strong constitution.
Soprano Caitlin Gotimer is more than up to the task. Possessed of a limpid, lyric sound, she easily encompassed the 2,300‑seat Memorial Auditorium interior space, soaring over orchestra and chorus.
On this opening night, however, she eschewed the unwritten but often interpolated high D6 at Butterfly’s Act I entrance, “Ancora un passo or via,” and elsewhere, her uppermost voice seemed oddly tentative. The notes were there and in place, but not generously shared, which no doubt disappointed those who, for better or worse, wait for them. For the seasoned attendee, however, high notes do not make the performance; one understands that an artist must constantly make acoustic adjustments when singing before a full house.
Gotimer’s “Un bel dì,” the opera’s most famous moment, was beautifully and delicately limned, while overall, her vocal storytelling proved her greatest strength.
As Pinkerton, Butterfly’s caddish husband, tenor Eric Taylor’s bright Americanized sound was ideal. Pinkerton is the quintessentially ethnocentric “ugly” American whose lack of character is apparent when he announces in advance of his first act nuptials that he will one day marry “una vera sposa americana”—that is, a real American wife. Pinkerton is a short role (he is absent for the three‑year period encapsulated between the first and third acts), and has but one brief aria, heard in Act III, “Addio, fiorito asil.” (Puccini, famously—and yes, anecdotedly—composed many of his opera arias expressly for the then‑new medium of the recording machine as a means of spreading his fame. Both Butterfly’s and Pinkerton’s solos could, therefore, easily fit, each onto a one-sided shellac 78 rpm disc.)
Far too late, Pinkerton laments his earlier behavior—though abbreviated to a few remorseful minutes—and Taylor made the most of his one solo moment, singing refulgently and with what at times used to be termed an Italianate sob. Both he and soprano Gotimer are on the musical radar of New York’s Metropolitan Opera, where much is expected of them as their careers progress.
The lead quartet was filled out with two artists of comparable quality. Mezzo‑soprano Lisa Chavez was impressive as Butterfly’s confidante, Suzuki—formidable and protective of her mistress, while helplessly witnessing the unfolding tragedy. This wide range was apparent in her bodily stance and in her voice, clearly enunciating text, and blending beautifully with Gotimer in the famous “Flower Duet.”
The role of Sharpless, U.S. Consul to Nagasaki, was entrusted to baritone Efraín Solís. He played the sympathetic foil to the lead couple, singing with a pleasing timbre while convincingly portraying the consul’s innate kindness. Both he and Chavez offered character portraits sensitive to Puccini’s score instructions.
Special mention goes to tenor Johnathan White, portraying the crafty marriage broker Goro with obvious relish. Completing the cast, each one an individual, were baritone Ryan Smith, bass Christian Blackburn, bass‑baritone Coleridge Nash, soprano Isabella Stollenmaier, bass‑baritone Thomas Keefe, and young Emery Hedges as Butterfly’s child Sorrow (sometimes called “Trouble”), whose quietly endearing innocence heightened the dramatic scenario each time he appeared.
North Carolina Opera scored a definite coup in acquiring the services of international stage director Francesca Zambello. In an era in which directors often delegate revival work to associates, Zambello (Artistic Director of the currently beleaguered Washington National Opera), was in Raleigh for one week to re‑stage her 2014 Glimmerglass Festival production.
In her words, “a clash of cultures is at the center of the story,” which she further describes as “the visceral sense of two worlds in disharmony.” Seeing the geisha as an outsider in her own land, Zambello approaches Butterfly’s tragic demise—and traditional hara‑kiri—as the end result of a woman who is victimized by male-dominated society, an idea that has great merit.
Veteran designer Michael Yeargan’s culturally respectful sets complemented Zambello’s vision, but held a few surprises. Act I, for example, was not set in Butterfly’s house and gardens, as per the norm, but rather, in Sharpless’ consulate office, the words to the Pledge of Allegiance on the back wall in both English and Japanese, a concept understood by both nations and peoples.
On the face of it, this change to the libretto made perfect sense, as Butterfly has embraced full Westernization in order to marry Pinkerton. With her marriage ceremony presided over by a U.S. government official, her traditional family is angered, providing dramatic impetus to move the story forward. In those moments of quietude and tenderness, however, the scene does at last shift to her house, suggested by billowing Roman shades (imitating traditional shoji) against an empty, somewhat stark stage and mostly subdued background colors, all of which are useful in focusing attention on the artists.
The Consulate office—again in place of the heroine’s house and gardens—returns to open Act II for the reading of Pinkerton’s letter. In Puccini’s stage directive, Sharpless climbs the hill to Butterfly’s house. Here, one is left to imagine that, having received the fatal brief, Sharpless has requested her to come to him before the start to Act II. All the same, the interview with arrogant Prince Yamadori and her berating of Goro, both of which occur earlier in the scene, are more private moments, and never intended by the composer (or librettists Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica) as unintentional spectator sport in a public space.
Here and elsewhere, Zambello gives the viewer something new and different to consider. Her genius as a director is such that the audience member is kept guessing, only to be finally convinced of the validity of her choices. Well, most of them, anyway...
Well-known conductor Arthur Fagen led with a slow, somewhat plodding beat at first—occasioning a few moments of disarray with the stage—but soon settled down to a generally representative performance with his excellent players, missing but the important moments of silence and pause, which speak volumes and are so important to pacing verismo opera.
Mixed-nationality costuming designed by Anita Yavich complemented the proceedings, looking beautiful on principals and on members of the fine North Carolina Opera Chorus, as well.
Traditional operatic memory having been successfully challenged in this production, it will be left to one’s memory of isolated tableaux to recall anecdotal information in future. Zambello, her singers, and all involved have given us a haunting Madama Butterfly which landed, alighting long enough to remain in the mind and memory for a very long time.
Carl J. Halperin
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