Apologies for the typo in my message, but this also raises a linguistic question. The plural of butterfly is of course butterflies, but would the plural of Madama Butterfly be Butterflies or Butterflys? Maybe safer to say "interpreters of Butterfly"?
Reviewing the new recording of Mascagni's Iris today, Jim Westhead remarks that "Ultimately, though, we are not moved by Iris’s gruesome fate in the same way that we are by Butterfly’s death."
One singer who succeeded in making a living, moving character of Iris was Magda Olivero - it was one of her most famous roles. The 1956 Cetra recording with Puma and Meletti is also notable for the insightful conducting of Angelo Questa, who understands that Mascagni is not Puccini and needs his space. Despite extensive cuts, this performance is almost 20 minutes longer than the complete Tokody/Domingo/Patanè, bringing us into another world. This is all the more interesting considering that, at about the same time, Questa set down one of the faster Butterfys on record.
There is a slightly later performance by Olivero from Amsterdam under Fulvio Vernizzi which I haven't heard, but both of these can be found on YouTube. It has a similar timing to Questa.
Memory (not recently refreshed) tells me that the late Daniela Dessì also made a credible figure of Iris. Her 1996 Rome performance with Cura and Ghiaurov under Gelmetti used to be available from Ricordi and may not be too hard to track down.
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