![]() ![]() The aesthetics of this production and the acting are largely inspired by Butoh, a Japanese form of dance characterized by slow motion, poetry and minimalism. Robert Wilson aimed at directing a refined version, outside of the all the "fake Japanese, cherry blossom and all of the traditional clichés on Japanese culture". Robert Wilson's signature production, which originated at the National Opera Paris in 1993, features exquisite costumes by Frida Parmeggiani and choreography by the late Japanese artist and long-time collaborator of Wilson, Suzushi Hanayagi. Compared to the devouring passion expressed in each intonation of Santuzza or Manon Lescaut, Butterfly contrasts silence and heartrending song with an unearthly modesty. ![]() Certainly, there are words but they are pared down to perfection to become almost incidental. In Butterfly though, there is nothing of the sort: there is little or no action, just the slow poetry of the soul. This was true for a work like Cavalleria rusticana or Tosca, Puccini’s preceding work. It had also relied on a power of expression that transformed the slightest word into imprecation. From its advent in the 1890s, “verismo” had relied on excessive, melodramatic librettos and effective, uncompromising theatricality. ![]() Undoubtedly one of the most beautiful and most comprehensive portraits of a woman in the history of opera-but also one of the most terrible, since it is a tale of humiliation and deceit which ultimately leads to death. Premiered on Novemat the National Opera, Paris, France Opera by Giacomo Puccini, Libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa
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