Madam Butterfly
CHAN 3070
Gramophone
Paul Charles Clarke 'is a convincing Pinkerton: not a blackguard but a Yankee bull in a Japanese porcelain shop... All the subsidiary singers and the chorus are good (the exquisitely phrased humming chorus is memorable).'
Opera in two acts
Libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa & Luigi Illica
after the book by John Luther Long
and the play by David Belasco
English version based on that of R.H. Elkin
The Cast
Cheryl Barker, soprano - Cio-Cio-San (Madam Butterfly)
Jean Rigby, mezzo-soprano - Suzuki
Paul Charles Clarke, tenor - B.F. Pinkerton
Gregory Yurisich, baritone - Sharpless
Stuart Kale, tenor - Goro
D'Arcy Bleiker, baritone (PMF Scholar)
- Prince Yamadori
Clive Bayley, bass (PMF Scholar) - The Bonze
Simon Birchall, bass - Yakuside
Roland Wood, bass (PMF Scholar)
- The Imperial Commissioner
Frances Brett, bass - The Official Registrar
Anne Sheridan Jinks, soprano
- Cio-Cio-San's mother
Paula Bott, soprano - The Aunt
Ann Taylor, mezzo-soprano - Kate Pinkerton
Cio-Cio-San's relations and friends and servants
- Geoffrey Mitchell Choir
Philharmonia Orchestra
Yves Abel - conductor


Recorded in Blackheath Halls, London 13-17 December 2000

Producer - Brian Couzens, Sound engineer - Ralph Couzens, Assistant engineer - Christopher Brooke
BBC Music Magazine
'This English-language Butterfly is an impressive performance by any criteria. With the Philharmonia on top form, conductor Yves Abel demonstrates the constant vitality of the music and manages its great climaxes superbly. The delicate palette of orchestral colours is lovingly revealed throughout. Cheryl Barker encompasses the full lyric and dramatic range of the complex, hugely demanding title role. She brings exceptional commitment to the part, whose tragic potential is impressively realised, to powerful effect... Gregory Yurisich offers a marvellously detailed and perceptive account of the worldly-wise but ineffectual consul Sharpless. Jean Rigby's Suzuki is a tower of strength...'