'Butterfly' dazzles eyes, ears

Opera in Rochester is moving to a new and significantly higher plateau over the weekend. Mercury Opera Rochester, the city's new professional troupe, gave on Friday night at the Eastman Theatre a performance of Madama Butterfly that did exactly what an opera is supposed to do - dazzle.

Everything about this Puccini production was strong. Its sumptuous set (a beautiful Japanese garden and bamboo house borrowed from Tacoma Opera in Washington state) was a feast for the eyes. Its costumes were pastel pretty. The lighting cast an expressive glow. And the pit orchestra - no less an ensemble than the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra under the superb direction of Music Director Benton Hess - performed with power, precision and prismatic beauty.

Of course, opera productions are only as great as their singing, and, at their best, the vocals in this Butterfly were stunning. Indeed, the sheer luster of sound that Butterfly and her entourage made at their Act 1 entrance will probably stick with me the rest of my life. Butterfly is one of the most demanding soprano roles in the entire repertoire - she must be able to sing high notes that seemingly defy gravity, and then turn around with tones low enough to choke a mezzo-soprano. Kaori Sato, Mercury's Butterfly, is endowed with that kind of range and then some.

But what will most linger in my ear is the remarkable richness of her tone. Even when hitting the most stratospheric notes in the famous Act 2 aria "Un bel di," Sato's notes were full, round and expressive. Tones in her middle voice had an intensely musical sort of misty quality.

Tenor Michael Rees Davis (Pinkerton) seemed slightly less effective, even somewhat stiff, at first. But this may well have had less to do with vocal ability and more to do with how stage director Adelaide Bishop wanted him to act. Perhaps she wanted Pinkerton to tone it down to seem less like a cad. In any case, the tenor was in full vocal bloom by the end of the Act 1 love duet.

The rest of the cast was equally satisfying - baritone Jake Gardner (Sharpless) sang with a warmly expressive voice; mezzo-soprano Kathryn Cowdrick revealed a lovely plummy instrument; baritone Ted Christopher (Bonze) performed with rattle-the-rafters power; and tenor Kevin Park (Goro) delivered every note with deep feeling. Hess, for his part, accompanied them all with unfailing sensitivity.

This is a make-or-break season for Mercury, and on Friday the company had only one test - to knock everybody's eyes out. Mercury passed this exam with honors, and in the process placed a new, sparkling jewel in the crown of Rochester arts.

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