Puccini: Madam Butterfly (in English). (Opera and Oratorio).

PUCCINI: Madam Butterfly (in English)

[] C. Barker, Rigby; P. C. Clarke, Yurisich; Geoffrey Mitchell Choir, Philharmonia Orchestra, Abel. Text. Chandos CHAN 3070

Chandos's recent Ernani in English sounded formal and stilted, but this Butterfly -- "based on [the version] of R. H. Elkin," according to the credits -- is considerably better. Save at the start of the love duet, where Butterfly and Pinkerton sound overeducated, the overall tone of the translation is apt; the cast, British trilled "r"s notwithstanding, projects it clearly -- I frequently put aside the printed libretto while listening -- and its direct, "spoken" quality minimizes the bathos that, in other performances, frequently plagues the piece.

So does Yves Abel's conducting, which draws the opera on an unusually intimate musical and dramatic scale. He emphasizes variety of color and texture, eschewing the temptation to drown the music in indiscriminate washes of orchestral tone. Time and again, liquid shafts of woodwind tone color the sheen of vibrant strings; the clarinet weaves most fetchingly around the voices in Act I. The conductor excels at setting the scene: the humming chorus effectively conjures nightfall, while in Act III -- which Chandos calls "Act II, Scene 2" -- the day comes evocatively to life. Quiet moments are sensitively handled: the solo violin in the love duet is exquisitely tender; a bittersweet waltz feel underpins Yamadori's lines. Nor does Abel shortchange the surging climaxes, which emerge in sharp relief: after the powerful close of "One fine day," the following passage immediately reestablishes a more quotidian mood. He can't quite shake the weight of melodrama from the final aria, but everywhere else the score sounds freshly created. And one barely notices how flexibly he supports his singers, so easily does the music breathe.

Of those singers, Cheryl Barker, in the title role, proves a real find. An Australian soprano currently active in Britain and Continental Europe, she paces her attractive, well-balanced lyric ...