Pinkerton or Sharpless?

Patrice Caurier and Moishe Leiser talk about their production of Puccini Madama Butterfly at the Royal Opera House in an interview with Opera Today. Very good insights into the art of stagecraft and sensitivity. But even more challenging in a way is how they see the relationship between some (not all) audiences and artists.

Sharpless, the Consul, has lived in Japan long enough to realize that the country is complex and the ways of the west aren't necessarily the ways of Japan. He engages and learns. Pinkerton, though, couldn't care less about Japan or even about other people's feelings. All that matters to him is instant, short term gratification. To him Japan is no more than something to be consumed and exploited. So what are we in our lives, Sharplesses or Pinkertons? Read the interview and think on Butterfly's fate.

Lots more to come on Madama Butterfly! Please keep coming back to this site because here you'll get a completely different perspective to usual.