Saturday, April 24, 1999
Ballet's 'Butterfly' turns heartbreak into beauty
BY CAROL NORRIS
Enquirer contributor
Ballet companies are continually looking for stories that can be made into full-length ballets. Judging from the numbers, audiences prefer getting lost in a story ballet to bouncing from one idea to another in an evening of one-acts. Choreographer David Nixon has hit on the perfect ballet drama with Butterfly.
Based on Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly, his story of confused love and cultural misunderstanding made its Cincinnati Ballet debut at Procter & Gamble Hall Friday for 1,936.
The ballet caught my heart. It helps that I'm a sucker for the opera, but this is Puccini without glorious voices. Mr. Nixon ably reveals the essence of the music with deftly timed choreography.
The opening scene occurs in a geisha house as three Japanese lovelies dance behind a painted scrim of a geisha and flowers. The effect of the dancers behind a scrim makes them look transparent, a prelude to the delicacy of the title role.
The geisha Butterfly (Anna Reznik) wins the attention of American naval officer Pinkerton (Christophe Maraval) as he watches her dance. Pinkerton purchases the girl as his bride. A mock marriage follows; But terfly believes it's for real.
After the couple spends a night together, Pinkerton returns to the States. A child is born as Butterfly waits for Pinkerton's return. Three years pass before he comes back with an American wife to claim his child. Having given up her culture to marry him, the broken-hearted Butterfly returns to it by killing herself to gain her freedom from the dishonor.
Dancing with the elegance of a prince, Mr. Maraval showed with his long-lined arabesques and confident overhead lifts why he's a dancer in demand. Too bad his character is such a cad; it's hard to love a guy who leaves a 16-year-old pregnant. Too bad, too, that Cincinnati loses him after this weekend when he leaves for the Pacific Northwest Ballet.
With gossamer wings Ms. Reznik catches the soul of the delicate, endearing Butterfly. In this emotional roller coaster, she is its core.
Between taped recordings of authentic Japanese music, Maestro Carmon DeLeone and the Cincinnati Ballet Orchestra rose to the occasion with a gorgeous handling of the score.
Butterfly repeats today at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. 241-7469.
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