What next? That is the question one keeps asking every now and then after seeing – yet again – some of those big, cutoff endings of best-loved operas in the repertoire. In case of Madama Butterfly (1904/1906-07), the answer comes in the guise of Trapped Butterfly (2023), chamber opera in one act by Sampo Kasurinen and Aina Bergroth, which picks up the story where Giacomo Puccini and his librettists Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa left it.
Jointly commissioned by Kuhmo Festival, Our Festival and Rauma Festivo, the opera is unraveled around two dramatis personae, Butterfly and her grown-up son, from whose point of view the story is accounted. Cast in present-day setting, Bergroth’s libretto examines the repercussions of Butterfly’s suicide with keen insight, peeling off layers of emotions and trauma evoked by the initial domestic tragedy.
Despite their seemingly surreal premise, the interactions between a teenage mother and her adult son come up with mounting mutual insight, resulting in cathartic learning curve, one devoid of any superficial melodrama.
Written for soprano and tenor soloists, string quartet and electroacoustic accordion, Kasurinen’s score is conceived in befittingly multi-layered manner, fusing together a bewitching continuum of material from slowly unfolding harmonic tapestries to bits and pieces of Puccini. Reflective and intensely dramatic, the scoring serves the narrative with pristine perceptiveness, zooming in and out between the two characters, as their inner realms gradually open up to one another in the course of the core dialogue.
Re-assessing the issues from today’s perspective, Trapped Butterfly sheds new light upon the many patriarchal and imperialist overtones imbued in the original opera, themselves rooted in the initial 1898 short story by John Luther Long and the subsequent play by David Belasco, premiered in 1900. Here, the particular and the universal merge, as the opera’s core psychology generates more wide-ranging societal meditations.
Neither sermon nor lecture, Trapped Butterfly is, in its very essence, a wonderfully conceived piece of music theater, presented in befittingly intimate stage setting, directed by Siljamari Heikinheimo. Shunning away from fin-de-siècle luster of Puccini, the chamber opera relies heavily on stage imagery of subtle gestures, fabulously enhanced by Autuas Ukkonen’s dream-like costumes and Pyry Pakkala Petterberg’s ever pin-point lighting design.
Firmly rooted in Kasurinen’s riveting vocal and instrumental scoring, the stage direction is seamlessly integrated into the aural ambiance, to an absolutely absorbing effect.
Portrayed with enthralling musical and stage presence by soprano Marjukka Tepponen, her rendition Butterfly’s psychological transformation from Puccinian dramatic object to flesh-and-blood subject comes off with utmost intensity in terms of vocal fluency and theatrical finesse alike. Similary, tenor Tuomas Miettola’s reading of the son, Ocean, is one of commanding immediacy and reactivity. Perceptively personified by Kasurinen’s vocal writing, both roles are embedded with nuanced musical psychology.
The instrumental fabric, admirably realized by Kamus Quartet and accordionist Harri Kuusijärvi under Tomas Djupsjöbacka’s ever-spot-on direction, was brought to life with immaculate technical mastery and unyielding dedication throughout the 107-page score in seven scenes. Whatever inscribed on its six staves, was delivered to the fullest. Ideally served by refined amplification and clear-cut sound design, the singers and instrumentalists were ever beautifully aligned, contributing to the spellbinding end result.
A gripping narrative of unusual emotional honesty, Trapped Butterfly is to be counted among the most powerful contemporary entries to the genre. Musically and psychologically challenging, yet instantly accessible, the opera is appealingly compact, which, hopefully, points out to several further outings for the Kasurinen and Bergroth masterstroke. With its Kuhmo Festival and Our Festival premieres behind, Trapped Butterfly travels to Rauma Festivo, for a third performance ahead on 4 August. What next, remains to be seen.
Our Festival
Sampo Kasurinen & Aina Bergroth: Trappeed Butterfly (2023) for soprano, tenor, string quartet and electoacoustic accordion
Kamus Quartet
Harri Kuusijärvi, electroacoustic accordion
Tomas Djupsjöbacka, conductor
Marjukka Tepponen, soprano (Madama Butterfly)
Tuomas Miettola, tenor (Ocean)
Siljamari Heikinheimo, stage director
Pyry Pakkala Petterberg, lighting design
Autuas Ukkonen, costume design
Krapin Paja, Tuusula, Finland
Sunday 23 July, 8 pm
© Jari Kallio
AIM - Adventures in Music 
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