THE BUTTERFLY THEME
"h AADAME BUTTERFLY" has. always seemed to me one of the great artistic legends of the Pacific, fit to be ranked with Maui, and "Moby Dick’ and "For the Term of His Natural Life"; particularly the hidden chorus at the end of the second act, for me the most pathetic moment of the drama. It calls to mind all the tragedy of the meeting and mingling and misunderstanding of races that occurs around the shores and islands of the Pacific. These thoughts were inevitably aroused by the performance from 4YC on a recent Sunday evening of Puccini‘s opera, But | put most of them down to the force and beauty of the singing of the Italian principals, and the chorus of the St. Cecilia Academy in Rome. In particular Renata Tebaldi as Cho-Cho-San brought out the fatalism of the Butterfly theme in the love duet at the end of the first act, It was easy to hear that she, like most operatic sopranos, enjoyed singing Puccini's music and playing what must be one of the most admirable heroines in grand opera,
Miya-Sama
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19540625.2.20.1
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 779, 25 June 1954, Page 10
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219THE BUTTERFLY THEME New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 779, 25 June 1954, Page 10
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