NEXT PLAYING:
METROPOLITAN OPERA OCTOBER 2007
ENO
London
JAN/ FEB 2008
The new Madama Butterfly made by the English National Opera, Lithuanian National Opera and the Metropolitan Opera, Madam Butterfly's child, known sometimes as "Sorrow" and sometimes as "Trouble" is played by a puppet. Blind Summit created the puppets and made the puppetry happen.
"The production really felt like a pivotal moment
for UK Puppetry"
D. Max Pryor, British Council On Tour Magazine
Love him or hate him, this little guy certainly caused a fuss:
“In the aisles and lobbies during the second intermission of the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly,” which opened the season on Monday night before a star-studded audience, patrons could be overheard heatedly debating the puppet used to portray Butterfly’s little boy.
This nonspeaking minor character is typically played by a cute child in a sailor suit. In this production the director Anthony Minghella has introduced a small puppet boy manipulated by three puppeteers cloaked in black who stand behind him. The child moves with eerily human gestures, and his baldish head has a wizened, hopeful yet anxious look.
Some people thought it was “more real than any
real child they could have had,” as one patron put it. Others thought
it was intriguing but very strange. Somewhere in the house, Peter Gelb, the
new general manager of the Met, must have been beaming.
New York Times, 29.9.06
"Mr Minghella’s finest touch is to turn the child of Butterfly
and Pinkerton into a Bunraku puppet, operated - as is traditional –
by three visible, but totally self effacing puppeteers (the superb Blind Summit
company), and far more expressive than any child actor.”
Paul Levy, The Wall Street Journal (Europe) 11 Nov 05
“The pathos of the blindfolded puppet-boy prior to his mother’s
suicide, taking faltering steps, is overwhelming.”
Barry Millington, Evening Standard, 7 Nov 05
“The physical detail, the restless, excitable, mother-clinging
actions and reactions are such that a child actor could never give us and
after a while you stop noticing the puppeteers and, like Butterfly, you see
only genuine emotion and need in the impassive doll-face. This is extraordinary.”
Edward Seckerson, The Independent, 7 Nov 05
“the stroke of genius in using a puppet for Butterfly's child
(expertly and vividly worked by a team of no fewer than three puppeteers),
add and add again to the sheer brilliance of the conception.”
A C Grayling, Time Literary Supplement
“I ended up thinking let’s close all the stage schools
and let all children under 12 be played by puppets…”
Adam Mars Jones, Front Row R4, 7 Nov 05
“the 3 year old child… played by a puppet, is so beautifully
done and is so moving and works exquisitely…”
Peggy Reynolds, Night Waves, 7 Nov 05
“The animation is so well achieved by veiled but perfectly
visible puppeteers that the puppets are easily the most authentic characters
on stage.”
Financial Times, 7 Nov 05, Andrew Clarke
“When, during the "dream ballet" interpolated into
the opening of Act 3, the puppet representing Butterfly clutches with desperation
at the departing Pinkerton, we heard an audible gasp go up around us.”
The Londonist 8 Nov 05
“this production will be remembered for its puppets.”
Tom Service, The Guardian, 7 Nov 05
"The most extraordinary part of Minghella's daring concept is
to use Bunraku-style puppet as Butterfly's lovechild, Sorrow... As wooden
performances go, this one is masterly"
The Daily Mail, 2 Dec 05
“The puppet is cute as a button, and it’s ingeniously
manipulated by three onstage hooded figures”
New York Classical and Dance
“Three black-hooded men operated the life-size puppet and infused
it with so much realism I forgot at times it wasn't alive.”
Seen and Heard International Opera Review – Harry Steiman
"The puppetry was on a level of genius"
The Nation, Thailand
"This is the moment that British puppetry has been waiting for,"
Animations Online ed. 15
Director - Anthony Minghella
Choreography - Carolyn Choa
Conductor - David Parry
Design - Michael Levine
Costume - Han Feng
Lighting - Peter Mumford
Puppetry - Blind Summit Theatre (Mark Down, Nick Barnes, Finn Caldwell, Giulia
Innocenti)
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