A new musical drama by writer Hiro Kanagawa and composer David McIntyre picks up the story 20 years later in Tom Pinkerton: The Ballad of Butterfly's Son. If you're in the Vancouver area, you can check out a workshop performance tomorrow afternoon at 3pm in the Canadian Memorial Church at Burrard and 16th Avenue. About the story:
At the end of Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly, the 3-year-old child of Cio-Cio and B.F. Pinkerton is whisked away to America to be raised by Pinkerton and his American wife, Kate. Set 20 years after these events, Tom Pinkerton finds the child struggling to become a man and searching for the mother he never knew. We travel with the youth, now called Tom, as he revisits the Nagasaki of his birth to find love and self-realization. But is he fated to repeat the sins of his father? And what has become of Mr. Sharpless, Suzuki, and the others?For more information about tomorrow's reading, check out the Rumble Productions website. Admission is free.
Both a return and a departure, Tom Pinkerton is an exciting new collaboration between playwright Hiro Kanagawa and composer David MacIntyre that combines the heightened emotions and theatricality of its operatic forebear with the tragic realities of Japan’s wondrous and sinister march through the early years of the 20th century.
Thank you for posting this information on "Tom Pinkerton, The Ballad of Butterfly's Son", Chris. The reading/performance was a huge success, with over 150 people attending and cheering in a standing O at the conclusion. The cast was magnificent! Imagine putting on a two and a half hour opera/music theatre project in five days and bringing together wonderful artists from both the opera and theatre communities. They took our work to places we had only previously dreamed of. And the glue that held this all together? The amazing pianist Kinza Tyrrell! A truly extraordinary musician who convinced the entire cast that she indeed has three hands! It was a history-making day in Vancouver on Friday, December 14. Enough to make me believe that the project has legs. We'll be certain to keep you posted.
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