"Dovunque al mondo lo Yankee vagabondo si gode e traffica sprezzando rischi. Affonda l'ancora alla ventura...." ("Everywhere in the world the roving Yankee takes his pleasure and his profit, indifferent to all risks. He drops anchor at random....")

So reads that infamous line from Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly, the story of an American naval officer, Benjamin Franklin (B.F.) Pinkerton, who abandons his Japanese wife, Cio-Cio San (Butterfly). The story, based on John Luther Longs novella, has been retold, again and again, in such productions as Broadways Miss Saigon and Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado. Most recently, BSO takes on a fully staged concert version of Puccini's opera at Symphony Hall, with the last and final performance this coming Saturday,

MADAME BUTTERFLY

Boston Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall

Through Feb 27the 27th of February.

Perhaps the story's repeated usage through timehas caused the plot to appear overly trite: Amorally corrupt American man deserts his innocent,trusting Japanese geisha-wife who waits faithfullyfor three years despite numerous signs of beingforsaken. The man then returns with his newAmerican wife expecting the Japanese wife to giveup their son.

However, upon closer examination, the storydoesn't appear to be necessarily focused on theatrocities that Pinkerton enacts againstButterfly. Interestingly, Butterfly is neverreferred to as "Madame Pinkerton," except byherself, even after her marriage. Rather, as thetitle suggests, the story is perhaps moreevocative of CioCio San's rite of passage from"Butterfly" to "Madame Butterfly."

Thus, the role of Butterfly is crucial. Whenshe is first wed to Pinkerton, Butterfly is only15 years of age. This is not to say that she wascompletely naive of the world. Rather, as thestory goes, Butterfly is forced into geisha-hoodbecause of the poverty inflicted upon her familyafter her father's death. So on many levels, oneimportant challenge to the vocalist is thejuxtaposition of the innocent child and therealistic woman.

This is particularly difficult in opera, which,by its nature, is sung by experienced, maturevoices. One possible means of counteracting thedifficulty in accurately portraying Butterfly'sage is to choose a voice that is not only able toinduce extreme amounts of pathos, but alsoindividualistic enough to specify the story into abelievable context. That is to say, a voice thatis unique enough in sound to invoke sympathy fromthe audience while also lying somewhere between alyric and a forced soprano in tone.

One of the most significant aspects of BSO'sperformance was the readily apparent emphasis onorchestration. Unlike most stagings of opera,where the orchestra sits in the pit, the membersof BSO were on stage, only slightly below theelevated set. Most definitely this was because ofSymphony Hallãs architecture, which was built toaccommodate orchestral events, but something stillhas to be said for the decision to perform theopera in that setting. The result was of mixedbenefits. Although the BSO sounded the best that Ihad ever heard them, the orchestra tended, attimes, to drown out the vocalists.

And yet, perhaps the greatest disappointmentwas the inability to clearly discern the wordsbeing sung, which, even if a person doesn'tunderstand a word of Italian is vital to the fullenjoyment of the opera and perhaps even moreimportant in that scenario. Although an equalquality of clarity in comparison to CD studioversions cannot be justly expected, it was shownthat certain voices were more fully comprehendiblethan others. Unfortunately, the lead roles ofButterfly (Paula Delligatti) and Pinkerton (LuisLima) were more adept at singing passages drivenby emotive tendencies than they were at filling inall those passages of recitative (sung speech ordialogue). Recitative was a significant portion ofthe Act I where the single action of Pinkerton andButterfly's marriage span the duration ofapproximately one hour.

Nevertheless, BSO's Madame Butterfly wasstill, on the whole, an enjoyable experience. Theset was exquisite, not overly modern oravant-garde, and accentuated with beautifulOriental designs illuminated on a backdrop oftextured, creamcolored lantern paper. The star ofthe show was invaribly Sharpless (Lucio Gallo),who stole the stage every time he was on it. ButDelligatti's convincing metamorphosis of Butterflyin Act II has to be equally lauded. It was such apleasure to see this opera emphasize Butterfly'scharacter rather than attempt toprovide arationalization for the character flaws of bothPinkerton and Butterfly and inevitably, makingMadame Butterfly a far less compellingstory of human nature