Melanie Bacaling, Stage Director, Discusses Production
Saturday evening, March 22, Pittsburgh Opera will give this season’s first performance of Puccini’s classic Madama Butterfly. In this new production, the story is moved to a realm “where reality and dreams intersect.” Chris Cox, Director of Marketing and Communications for Pittsburgh Opera, recently took the time to discuss the production with stage director Melanie Bacaling, and shared with us the following transcript of their conversation:
Chris Cox: Melanie Bacaling, welcome to Pittsburgh.
Melanie Bacaling: Thank you so much for having me.
CC: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you became an Opera Stage director?
MB: That is a bit of a winding road. I am originally from Chicago. I came to opera first through the singing lens, actually. I got my undergraduate degrees in psychology and vocal performance from the University of Evansville. And then in graduate school I got my master’s in vocal pedagogy and performance, thinking I was going to go more towards the teaching and singing route, focusing on voice science and rehabilitating injured singing voices.
But while I was in grad school, I started working closely with one of the directing faculty at the Boston Conservatory, Nathan Troop. I just absolutely fell in love with being on the other side of the table, and realized that big picture storytelling was something I really had my heart and eyes on. I’d always been into theater and that kind of storytelling. So I started taking the opportunities to be in rehearsal rooms. I was sweeping and mopping the floors of the Boston Lyric Opera rehearsal rooms so I could be there observing and watching how directors and conductors and singers work and interact. And from there, I ended up getting a few opportunities to stage manage and production assist and then worked my way up into assistant directing and now fully directing. On this production I am the Associate Revival Director. Matthew Ozawa, who originated the production, is a dear mentor and friend of mine.
So it was definitely by the grace of people letting me listen and ask and observe. I am very grateful for the path that I’ve had and feel very at home in what I get to do now, which is exciting.
CC:
From your perspective, why has Madama Butterfly remained such a popular opera for over a hundred years?
MB:
I think it is most definitely the score. Puccini is such a descriptive composer. All of his operas give you the drama. No note is wasted, no instrument is wasted, it is all there. As a director, it is such a gift to be able to just trust the score and to know that the storytelling is inherently present. Madama Butterfly has some of his most beautiful music; it really gets at the heart of the characters he’s created within the score. By and large, when you ask a lot of people about what their favorite opera is or what some of their favorite arias are, more often than not, you will hear Madama Butterfly being referenced for the beauty of the music.
CC:
Can you tell us about this specific production that folks will come see. How and why is it different from a quote/unquote “traditional” production of Madama Butterfly?
MB:
The framing container, which is what the directing and design team call it, that we’re telling the story in is rather modern. We see the story of Butterfly being told through the lens of this virtual reality world. Pinkerton puts on a VR headset and then he transforms into the Pinkerton avatar of the story and Butterfly comes to life. We are framing the story through the sort of white male gaze, and seeing how it can come to life, in a way that I think is actually truer to the story than previous framing devices.
We don’t change the score. The score is what it is, the libretto is what it is. If anything, we’ve made a couple of adaptations to the Japanese phrasing. For example, in the original libretto The Bonze says “Cio-Cio San”, but in Japanese culture it should actually be “Cio-Cio Yo” because he is an elder referring to a younger, so we changed that.
The way that this framing device works highlights the actual story in and of itself. It makes it come to life in a way that feels really present for a 2025 audience.
CC:
In a lot of our productions, the cast has either never worked together before, or if they have, it was in a different opera years ago. But for this Madama Butterfly, a lot of the primary cast members have not just worked together before, but have been in this particular production of Madama Butterfly before. So on the one hand I think, “Oh, well that must make Melanie’s job a little bit easier. They’ve got this great head start already.” But then on the other hand, how do you guard against what could be a potential risk of complacency that can come from routine and familiarity?
MB:
It’s a gift that we get to continue to interrogate the piece. This particular cast, we have some folks who were with us in Cincinnati, which was the originating production, some folks who were with us in Detroit where it went shortly after, and some who were at both. This cast is like a hybrid of the two. And then we have some new folks here as well in some of the other roles. That forced Matthew and me to really ask ourselves, “Okay, did this moment really read? What do they remember? What do they not remember?” And to have honest conversations with each other. We’ve built our rapport together where we can say, “You know, actually I thought that this moment could be better with like this move and this thing.”
It was definitely a gift to be able to really create this fresh. And it feels like this is a third version of the production, where we’re staying honest with the original staging, but making sure that we’re all on the same page about adapting it. One of the incredible things about being able to work with a group of artists that you’ve been familiar with is, you feel comfortable making decisions together. Everybody knows the goal of the story and has done it before. They are incredible artists themselves; they’re able to keep it fresh, and willing to do more work to ask, “Does this actually read, or are we doing it just because you told us to do it?” It’s been a really great experience to revisit Madama Butterfly with all of them.
CC:
What makes this such a great show for people who are new to opera?
MB:
Puccini’s score is so descriptive that you get a lot of the story from the way that it’s written just organically. Also, the athleticism of the singers, and being able to really appreciate that power of the human voice. One of the greatest things about opera is that we get to witness the athleticism of an opera singer, which is the Olympian way of singing. Also, the way that we’re framing this particular story with our virtual reality world feels very accessible. It feels very modern with touch points that would feel present to someone being introduced to a new story for the first time. So, you’re getting all of the great qualities of your operatic experience through the singing and through the music combined with this storytelling device that keeps your brain and eyes fresh.
CC:
What other things do the audience have to look forward to at this show?
MB:
The design is absolutely a feast for the eyes. Our set design by Dots led by Kimie Nishikawa is absolutely stunning. The way we go from a small apartment into this fantasy room that actually has the appropriate Japanese proportions – she was so thoughtful in curating that world. The costumes and the hair and makeup by Maiko Matsushima. She drew from really incredible VR, manga, various Japanese visuals that really pop and bring the design to life. And then our lighting by Yuki Nakase Link just absolutely elevates all their designs already. Madama Butterfly is this visual feast; the first time I saw it all come together, I gasped.
CC:
What makes this production special for you?
MB:
It’s really significant to me. One of my favorite things about being part of this production has been the collaborative effort with the directing and design team. The way that Matthew has led this has really been collectivist in nature. We all sat together on Zoom before even getting to Cincinnati and really interrogated how we wanted to tell the story and how it made us feel represented or not represented.
And especially for our designers, Maiko and Kimie and Yuki, being Japanese women themselves and never feeling like they were adequately represented through Butterfly’s characters. To find a way to tell the story that makes them feel like they have ownership and power in this framing is so significant. The fact that so many people are responding really well to it and so many companies are supporting it, means the world to us. I am grateful to Pittsburgh Opera, to Cincinnati Opera, to Detroit Opera, and Utah Opera for being supporters of that storytelling and that truly genuine, adequate representation.
Photography – Philip Groshong, Cincinnati Opera
For detailed production information, tickets and more, visit Pittsburgh Opera
Leave a Reply Cancel reply