When the Atlanta Opera last produced the infamous Puccini opera “Madama Butterfly,” executive and artistic director Tomer Zvulun was just getting a feel for his new city.

Hired as the artistic boss in 2013, “Butterfly” served as his introduction to Atlanta. As the new man in town, Zvulun wanted to make a splash with a production he created under the guidance of famed conductor Lorin Maazel, showing audiences an opera company with a $5 million budget that only staged three seasonal productions could grow into something much larger.

Tomer Zvulun, general and artistic director of the Atlanta Opera, marked his 10th anniversary of bringing opera to Atlanta in 2019. Photo: Orel Cohen

Credit: Orel Cohen

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Credit: Orel Cohen

Almost a decade later, Zvulun is directing a new version of “Butterfly” from a much different angle.

“Coming back to it is a little bit like coming home,” he said, noting that the opera is being produced by a very different company. The budget has now ballooned to $12 million, and the number of productions has doubled. “Butterfly” is also now being staged in a very different Atlanta.

“The times have changed, and what was relevant 10 years ago is different now,” he said. “Every time that we do it, it’s going to be a little different because we are not the same people. … It’s not the same world.”

The story, however, is still the same. “Butterfly” opens in Nagasaki as the 15-year-old Japanese girl Cio-Cio San (soprano Yasko Sato), the titular Butterfly, prepares to wed American soldier Lieutenant Pinkerton (tenor Ginaluca Terranova). Not everyone is happy with the arrangement, and her uncle (baritone Suchan Kim) and other wedding guests condemn her decision and her rejection of faith in favor of Pinkerton’s Christianity. Pinkerton soon heads back to America to begin a second life, leaving behind his Japanese bride to wonder if he will ever return. When Pinkerton comes back to Nagasaki with his American wife (mezzo-soprano Gretchen Krupp), Cio-Cio San’s dreams of a happy life are crushed, and in the end, she takes her own life with the dagger her father once used to commit suicide.

The cast also includes tenor Julius Ahn, basses Jaenam Lee and Allen Michael Jones, bass-baritone Andrew Gilstrap, and baritones Leroy Davis and Craig Colclough. Timothy Myers conducts.

For the new staging, the Atlanta Opera has focused on representation by welcoming Japanese and Asian American performers to the cast in addition to bringing in cultural consultants to make sure an opera that has been viewed as insensitive gives its characters proper respect. Kevin Suzuki will advise on traditional Japanese movement, and others will help ensure the authenticity of Allen Charles Klein’s costumes. The reason for cultural attention is plainly stated on the Atlanta Opera’s website: “This is an opera written in the first decade of the 1900s by a European man, which reaches our modern ears and understanding in a different way.”

That attention extends beyond the stage. The opera is producing a five-part podcast called “Metamorphosis” that discusses the cultural sensitives around “Butterfly,” creating a dialogue around viewing the opera in a new light. Hosted by Japanese American mezzo-soprano Nina Yoshida Nelsen, who plays Cio-Cio San’s maid Suzuki in the production, the first episode features “Final Bow for Yellowface” author Phil Chan in a discussion of Asian representation in arts and culture.

The Atlanta Opera last produced Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" in 2014.
(Courtesy of Jeff Roffman)

Credit: Jeff Roffman

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Credit: Jeff Roffman

The Atlanta Opera is not alone in this reexamination of “Butterfly.” The Boston Lyric Opera’s “The Butterfly Process” is a series of discussions aimed at reframing the company’s next staging of the opera, which was on the books for Fall 2020 but canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In June, the Royal Opera House staged “Butterfly” after a year-long concentration on all aspects of the opera. That organization brought in an expert in Japanese movement as well as academics to consult about everything from costuming to scenery.

Atlanta Opera’s focus on the Atlanta Japanese community began during that first production in 2014. The organization contacted the Japan-America Society of Georgia to develop a partnership before the opera that would help promote the production and get the group’s members interested in attending. This year, the society has been more involved in creating educational conversations leading up to the event.

“It’s a more inclusive collaboration this time around,” said the organization’s executive director, Yoshi Domoto. “We’re really diving deep into the backstory of ‘Madama Butterfly.’”

Domoto’s organization is mostly known for cultivating Japanese business in the state. He noted that Japan is the top foreign investor in Georgia (there are more than 600 Japanese companies here), but that his organization aims to get more involved in discussing broader aspects of Asian culture. He thinks the partnership with the Atlanta Opera will open up other avenues for conversations about how the Asian American community is portrayed.

“Hopefully this can just be a start to the conversation, and we can do a lot more in the future,” he said.

Refusing to stage “Madama Butterfly” has always been an option, but it was the wrong tactic for Zvulun. He views the opera as a piece of art that should be experienced, but knows the opera also needs to be put in proper context. It needs to be interpreted by taking into account everything that has occurred in the last decade regarding proper representation. That history also includes Atlanta’s experience with Asian hate crimes, and Zvulun is acutely aware he is presenting what has historically been a problematic opera in a city still grieving the loss of six Asian women killed in the spa shootings in March 2021.

“I view the opera as an opportunity to shine a light on the killing of Asian women,” he said. “We view rather than cancelling ‘Madama Butterfly,’ presenting it and talking about those issues is a great opportunity to not only celebrate the masterpiece but also discuss the danger of tropes and a Eurocentric perspective.”

Shying away from tough subjects, or in this case an opera that has historically presented Japanese people as mere caricatures, ultimately stunts artistic growth. Embracing thorny issues with proper guidance and support from the impacted communities is important to Zvulun.

“Instead of being afraid of talking about problems that can emerge from presenting a ‘Madama Butterfly’ or ‘Don Giovanni,’” he said, “we view it as an opportunity to address issues that are on our minds and have changed through the lens of time.”


OPERA PREVIEW

Atlanta Opera: “Madama Butterfly”

8 p.m. Nov. 5, 11; 7:30 p.m. Nov. 8; 3 p.m. Nov. 13. $45-$181. Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, 2800 Cobb Galleria Parkway, Atlanta. 404-881-8885, atlantaopera.org.