These two shows were a fundamentally new, but amazing experience for me. But that’s not because I haven’t seen any Broadway musicals, plays, or operas before, but rather I have never seen any shows in which I was a learned observer. I have never prior to the show come in with the knowledge of the play’s history and story, nor have I discussed the criticisms or its wonderful moments. While seeing both Madame and M. Butterfly, my viewing experience was fundamentally different, rather than wondering what the next bit of the story was, I was excited to see how the actors would showcase a scene I vividly remembered and talked about. What would their actions be? How would they convey its message? Would I be as engaged as I was while reading? These thoughts definitely kept me on the edge of my seat during the performances. It was also one of the reasons why I felt I actually enjoyed the opera, words which I never really expected to say.
Of the two art forms, however, I definitely enjoyed M. Butterly more. It was engaging, lively, comedic, serious, and interesting, all at the same time. I loved how the actors broke the fourth wall and spoke to the audience, acknowledging that they were telling us a story about what happened. They critiqued themselves, what they did, and their own words. Gallimard himself eventually recognized the hypocrisy in his life and beliefs about Butterfly, although he did refuse to accept it. It was very interesting watching Gallimard react to differences in Chinese opera, which was depicted as anything but submissive and quiet, but rather very active and loud. The split in the screens which created the backdrops for the play was a very clever way of transitioning from one world to the next. They were not intrusive but rather were very instrumental in shifting the audience’s mindset from France to China. All in all, it was a wonderful performance, where I very much enjoyed listening to the critique of the Western depiction of Eastern culture, the complexities of the human mind and gender itself.
