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10/23/2019
Asian Performers Appropriately cast in Portland Opera’s ‘Madama Butterfly’
By HOLLY JOHNSON // Mezzo-soprano Nina Yoshida Nelsen is no stranger to the role of Suzuki, the main character’s confidant in Madama Butterfly. She’s performed this role over 100 times, she says, in productions of the Puccini favorite in the Utah Opera, the Houston Grand Opera the Atlanta Opera among others. And now, she’s portraying Suzuki in Portland.
Mezzo-soprano Nina Yoshida Nelsen is no stranger to the role of Suzuki, the main character’s confidant in Madama Butterfly. It is offered by the Portland Opera Oct. 25, 27, 31 and Nov. 2. At the Keller auditorium.
She’s performed this role over 100 times, she says, in productions of the Puccini favorite in the Utah Opera, the Houston Grand Opera the Atlanta Opera among others.And now, she’s portraying Suzuki in Portland.
“There’s always something new about her,” says the California native. She’s of mixed heritage, whose father was Japanese and mother Caucasian. "It changes with every director.”
In this Portland production, which follows a very traditional look and feel, “she’s a little saucy,” says Nelsen,” maybe more skeptical than Butterfly, more in touch with reality; whereas Butterfly ( the lead character of Cio-Cio-San, played by Japanese singer Hiromi Omura) is young and in love and hopeful.”
Nelsen never tires of the show. She loves the music, which helps. “I could listen to it all day. But she says the acting is her favorite part of being an opera singer.
“I love finding depth in a character, and figuring how every single move that I make onstage can make an impact.”
In “Butterfly,” she says, “I’m onstage for the whole opera; I don’t sing all the time, but I’m there listening, and in some ways, I consider myself on the same level as the audience. So anything I’m seeing, feeling, wondering and doing, I hope the audience sees that and that it helps them to enjoy the show more. “
What’s special about this production?
Besides its traditional look relating to the early 1900s when it was first performed and when the story was set, “all the Japanese roles are played by Asian singers. I think it’s a really strong choice, something Portland Opera decided to do.”
Nelsen grew up in Santa Barbara, and when her parents asked her if she wanted to play an instrument, she chose the violin.”I was nine.” In high school she sang with an a cappela group that was “phenomenal.” She went on to Boston University to study violin and psychology, choosing to become a performance anxiety therapist instead of a musician.
Then something unexpected happened. A woman who admired her voice in high school sent her $500 to take voice lessons. “At the end of my school year, she said, ‘Sure you don’t want to try and be an opera singer?
“I auditioned, and I got so much more scholarship money to get a Master’s in voice than I did in psychology.”
That launched her opera career. “I didn’t know what upstage or downstage was. I had no idea what I was doing,” said Nelsen. After working for an outreach program for kids in California, she quickly learned a lot about opera. “That was my first real experience.” At this time, she met her husband Jeff Nelsen, a French horn player with Canadian brass. The couple have two boys.
Nelsen has myriad opera credits besides Suzuki. She made her Nashville Symphony debut singing Handel’s Messiah, and she performed in the world premiere of Memory Stone, a chamber opera, with the Houston Opera. She performed in a show dear to her heart in Seattle, the role of Mama in An American Dream, about the Japanese in internment camps. She performed the alto solo in Beethoven’s Symphony No 9 at Carnegie Hall.
What is also special about this Portland production, Nelsen adds, is that to make more authentic a traditional version of Madama Butterfly, the opera brought in cultural movement consultants from New York, to make sure movement is historically accurate. For example, chorus members stand in different ways. Servants bow low. Geisha girls bow at a slant. Villagers have a specific stance. “How you hold a cup is different for every group.”
What does Nelsen hope audiences will take away from the performance?
“I hope they feel every emotion—laughter, sadness, anger, despair, everything. I hope they leave feeling like they just went on a roller coaster ride. That’s how I feel, every time.”
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