*Madama Butterfly,* Mar 11 2026
- ladiesvoices
- 11 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Terry and I saw Madama Butterfly at the Met on Mar 11, 2026. We had both seen this production before - - I saw it about 15 years ago with my husband, his good friend Barbara, and her son William, who was about 13. He had never seen an opera before and was blown away. Butterfly is a perfect first opera, the music is so gorgeous and expressive, the drama is expertly handled, it gives fantastic opportunities to the singers, it has one or two tunes you might recognize, and the Met production is impossibly beautiful.
I was eager to hear Ailyn Pérez in the role. I'd only heard her once before, in Florencia en el Amazonas a few years ago. i was impressed with her in that and I expected her to be just as good as Butterfly. She was wonderful, she captured all the complexity of her character and she sang like a dream. Here she is singing the end of her show-stopping aria:
She's developed a mannerism that I don't care for - - I call it a "gulp." I love the Turkish soprano Leyla Gencer, the poor man's Callas in the 60s. She's the queen of the gulp. She does a good one at about 1:23 in this Rossini aria:
i don't know what it's meant to convey and definitely don't want to know how's it's achieved. It should be used sparingly and Pérez uses it too much. I heard her doing it four times in one phrase. Someone needs to talk with her about this.
Butterfly's asshole husband was played by a tenor I like a lot, Matthew Polenzani. I've been hearing him for 20 years at the Met, first in small parts, then in small parts with juicy bits, now in leading roles. I love his singing, he has a gorgeous voice and really knows what he's doing.
Butterfly's gal pal Suzuki was played by Hyona Kim. This character doesn't have much to do but she did it well, sang beautifully and acted with conviction. The American consul was played by Andrzej Filończyk - - I didn't think I'd heard him before but it turns out I heard him in The Amazing Adventures in Kavalier and Clay. He was very strong in that and he was smart to do a standard rep piece in the same season, it's dangerous to get pigeon-holed doing new pieces. He has a very handsome voice.
Conductor Carlo Rizzi kept things moving and had the flexible, supple way you need with Puccini. One of the highlights of the Met production is the portrayal of Butterfly's three-year-old son. Director Anthony Minghella chose to have this character played by a puppet. I can't explain why but it has a much stronger impact than when it's played by a human child. Here he is with Pérez in one of her breast-beating arias. You hear a few gulps near the end, especially before her last phrase.
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