Tears on the picnic lawn: Madama Butterfly at Glyndebourne

By Mark Pullinger, 20 May 2018

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“spitting cobra col legno attacks as Cio-Cio San's suicide is interrupted”

Reviewed at Glyndebourne Opera House, Glyndebourne on 19 May 2018

Puccini, Madama Butterfly

Glyndebourne Festival Opera

Omer Meir Wellber, Conductor

Annilese Miskimmon, Director

Nicky Shaw, Set Designer, Costume Designer

Olga Busuioc, Cio-Cio-San (Madama Butterfly)

Joshua Guerrero, Pinkerton

Michael Sumuel, Sharpless

Elizabeth DeShong, Suzuki

Carlo Bosi, Goro

Szymon Mechliński, Prince Yamadori

Oleg Budaratskiy, The Bonze

Ida Ränzlöv, Kate Pinkerton

Eirlys Myfanwy Davies, Cio-Cio-san's mother

Jennifer Witton, The cousin

Shuna Scott Sendall, The aunt

Jake Muffett, The Official Registrar

Michael Mofidian, The Imperial Commissioner

Adam Marsden, Yakuside

The Glyndebourne Chorus

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Glyndebourne revives Michieletto’s Kátya Kabanová

Mark Valencia, 3rd August

Damiano Michieletto’s production of Janáček’s opera breaks a key tenet of high-concept opera: where it should reveal, it obfuscates.

***11

All the world’s a jest: Falstaff returns to Glyndebourne

Mark Pullinger, 23rd July

Richard Jones' 2009 production returns to Glyndebourne after a long absence, but the 1940s comedy scrubs up fresh.

***11

A strong new Figaro opens at Glyndebourne

Dominic Lowe, 29th June

Mariame Clément is a popular director at Glyndebourne, and her new production of Figaro shows her trademark approach to hardhitting comedy.

****1

Glyndebourne's Saul still packs a punch 10 years on

Nick Boston, 8th June

Returning from the original run, Christopher Purves and Iestyn Davies were joined by a strong cast and chorus for a revival of Barrie Kosky's striking production.

*****

Unhurried suspense in a very English Parsifal

Peter Quantrill, 17th May

Compelling singers carry the day in the Glyndebourne Festival Opera's first staging of Wagner’s swansong.

****1

Glyndebourne’s season opens with Rossini’s Barber of Seville

David Karlin, 16th May

Annabel Arden’s production provides joyous comedy, with vocal and orchestral performances of the very finest.

*****

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Mark Pullinger

Mark has been a Bachtrack editor since 2014. He is also an experienced critic, writing hundreds of reviews for the site, as well as a freelancer writing for other magazines and newspapers. He also writes programme notes and blogs on Substack. Mark has a particular passion for the operas of Verdi as well as Russian and French repertoire. Outside the concert hall and opera house, Mark enjoys cooking and travel and is probably at his happiest let loose in a French patisserie or a Viennese coffee house.

Tears on the picnic lawn: Madama Butterfly makes her bow at the Glyndebourne Festival