“Puccini wanted us to cry,” says director Olivier Pi. “Yes, you have to cry all the time,” adds set and costume designer Pierre-André Weitz.

“Puccini is the sun, he is the connection with the sky. To sing it, you need to open your mouth and let out everything that is in your soul. Like the gospel. He is generous and constantly needs emotions. If you don’t cry listening to Puccini, then someone on the show has done a bad job.”

We are sitting on one of the upper stands of the hollow and, despite the distance from the orchestra of the old conservatory, drills, hammers and the voices of technicians who install the scenery sometimes drown out our words. The first day of rehearsals at the Herodeum for the National Opera’s new international production of Madama Butterfly, and this chilly day with spectacular cloudy skies has them both repeating “What a beauty!” from time to time. a flurry of noise. For their partners are Olivier and Pierrot, familiar and calm despite the recognition they receive for their work; two outstanding theatergoers with many years of experience, but still passionate about their work. Together they staged 46 operas – Pi directs, Weitz – costumes and scenery, about 100 theatrical productions, and also coexist on stage, playing and singing. But for Olivier Pi, who recently took over the Sattel theater in Paris, this is his first exposure to the popular “Japanese tragedy” and Puccini in general.

Cultural debate

“Puccini is Pierre-André’s favorite composer,” Pi says. “We have a cultural debate, I am with Wagner, he is with Puccini. Maybe because I’m half Italian and he’s half German, we’re drawn to opposites.” Weitz, who studied, among other things, at the Paris Conservatory of Opera, sang this particular opera 40 times. Pi learned about Puccini from a picture his grandmother kept by her bedside table and from the arias she played the piano and sang in French. “She adored him, and listening to her, I couldn’t tell if he was a real person or an imaginary one.”

And how will they now cope with the challenges of this classic repertoire? “We sing Butterfly all day long. We live with “Butterfly,” the set designer replies. “We are constantly working, primarily on the score.” “Prima la musica,” adds the director. “We work together all year, and it is very difficult to understand who owns the first idea of ​​this or that direction. I think that all we both want over the years is to serve art and the public, to give rise to true, deep feelings. We don’t care about the rest and we don’t share our roles. Of course, with age he becomes wiser. For me, age is just a disaster,” he laughs.

They visited Herodium long before they started planning this particular production. It was winter, absolute silence. “No one can understand this space if he is not here. When we came with Olivier, we said: “It’s huge, and the orchestra is so close to the audience!” In fact, an optical illusion is created: when you are in the upper stands, it seems to you that the theater is very large, and below the viewer has a very personal relationship with the actors. On the other hand, the orchestra takes the audience away from the stage action,” Weitz explains. Their observations gave them their first inspiration, which scenographically suggests a completely new approach to space. On the stage of the conservatory we will see the “rise” of the musicians, and the action will unfold in the orchestral area.

“We thought about it, but didn’t know if it was possible because it’s very experimental,” comments Olivier Pi. “The orchestra required for the work is large, with 66 members, and the balance between the singers’ voices and the music is always a challenge, especially in Butterfly. Piero, who is also a musician, immediately understood this. The acoustics with this move are excellent. It will be more convenient for the singers, there will be several monitors to watch the conductor. Of course, it will be more difficult for him, but Vasilis (S. S. Christopoulos) immediately agreed.

sky map

“If you don’t cry listening to Puccini, then someone on the show has done a bad job.”

It’s almost time to start rehearsals. New hammers and assembly instructions are launched onto the stage from the top of a metal bridge that blends into the setting and is influenced by Noh and Kabuki theatre. The staircase descending to the orchestra platform unfolds in the form of a black Chinese fan. The disk is placed in the center of the orchestra, and the technicians pass a white “string” around it.

“The circle is a map of the sky that will light up with all its stars. There will be rotating light around, a reference to the Cosmos, and huge balls of light will rise into the sky. Throughout its duration, the play tells about the moon, stars, planets. For the world, for eternal things like this theater where we work. The scenography has a strong connection with the place, but the viewer can “read” it in one way or another,” Weitz says.

First act

The rehearsal starts from the first act. Tenor Andrea Carré plays Pinkerton, and the direction leaves him no room for romance. “Pinkerton is an alcoholic, selfish, buys an underage girl for fun. Cho-Cho-San thinks she’s in love. She is a stupid teenager, just like me when I was 17 and wanted to live in the USA. Don’t laugh, we’re not doing Tristan und Isolde, we’re doing an eco-feminist play,” says Olivier Pi.

“But she loves him,” I protest. “Does she love him or what he represents?” Pi insists. “Would Puccini agree with this reading?” I’m asking. But that’s his opinion, not mine. He had close relations with America. The New World fascinated him, but also scared him a little. So he wrote this work more to tell about America than about Japan, where he never went. Perhaps this is a prophecy about what will happen in Japan forty years from now.”

“We cannot talk about Madama Butterfly today without thinking about the atomic bomb. This would mean that the public that will come does not know History,” adds Pierre-André Weitz. – So, politics wins exoticism and innocence? “No. We try to make beauty even in horror. First aesthetics, and then politics.”

Giacomo Puccini, Madama Butterfly. National Opera, Athens – Epidaurian Festival, Herodes Atticus Conservatory, 1, 4, 7 and 10 June. Directed by: Olivier Pi. Conductor: Vassilis Christopoulos.