We left at the interval...

Palais de la Monnaie, Brussels, Sunday February 12 2017. Conductor: Bassem Akiki. Production: Kirsten Dehlholm (Hotel Pro Forma). Co-Director: Jon R. Skulberg. Sets: Maja Ziska. Costumes: Henrik Vibskov. Lighting: Jesper Kongshaug. Cio-Cio-San: Amanda Echalaz. Suzuki: Qiulin Zhang. Kate Pinkerton: Marta Beretta. F. B. Pinkerton: Leonardo Caimi. Sharpless: Aris Argiris. Goro: Riccardo Botta. Il Principe Yamadori: Aldo Heo. Lo zio Bonzo: Mikhail Kolelishvili. Il commisario / L’ufficiale: Wiard Witholt. Yakuside: René Laryea. Madre di Cio-Cio-San: Birgitte Bønding. Zia di Cio-Cio-San: Rosa Brandao. Cugina di Cio-Cio-San: Adrienne Visser. Puppeteers: Tim Hammer, Joris De Jong, Ruben Mardulier, Suze Van Miltenburg. La Monnaie Orchestra and Chorus. Puccini It has struck me, thinking about yesterday’s Butterfly in Brussels, that there’s a big difference between “thought-provoking” productions and “puzzling” ones. Warlikowski’s productions are usually the former. Even if you don’t r...

ONP – Bastille, Monday January 30 2006 Conductor: Marco Balderi. Production and sets: Robert Wilson. Cio-Cio San: Hui He. Suzuki: Ekaterina Gubanova. F. B. Pinkerton: Marco Berti. Sharpless: Dwayne Croft. Goro: Burkhard Ulrich. Il Commissario Imperiale: Yuri Kissin. Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra national de Paris. It might be nice to write with the cast-iron self-assurance of professional critics, but as an amateur, I feel obliged to own up to doubts. When my own views on the night are at odds with the reviews I’ve read, I feel bound to wonder if my ears - or fatigue, or just mood - are at fault. The critics have been kind to the lead singers in this revival of Bob Wilson’s 1993 Butterfly , and as they were, for once, undeniably audible, I fear I may sound ungrateful…  But first, the production. No cherry trees, no painted fans, no embroidered silks… In fact, no vertical sets at all. The stage is covered with a Zen garden of raked sand. In act one, a wooden catwalk crosses from...