Photo courtesy Virginia Opera
This spring, Virginia Opera presents Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly,” the tragic tale of Cio-Cio San, a Japanese woman who falls in love with an American Navy lieutenant. For this production, New York-based director Richard Gammon, who studied at the New England Conservatory of Music and the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance, makes his debut with the Virginia Opera. Gammon talks about the cultural significance of the opera, casting decisions and his journey as a director.
Richmond magazine: What was your introduction to opera?
Photo by Suzanne Vinnik
Richard Gammon: I started as a singer. I’m the son of [a Filipino] immigrant mother, and my father’s American. I would just sing around the house, and my mom just encouraged me to do that. Really, a high school teacher discovered my voice singing in chorus. And then I did a very traditional conservatory training to become a performer. Then, one day … I was in an opera workshopping class, and one of the assignments was to self-stage your own aria. You come up with your own aria, you come up with your own environment, and a bunch of people started coming to me and asking if I would help them with that. I found that much more interesting than doing it myself, so I transitioned into directing pretty soon after that.
RM: Given the backlash in Hollywood against non-Asians playing Asian roles, why was Danielle Pastin, a non-Asian woman, cast as Cio-Cio San?
Gammon: [Laughs] I know this is one of the many questions you could ask me about. I totally knew it was coming. I have worked with Danielle in the past in a different capacity. She’s a super wonderful person. The topic of race is so interesting in opera right now because opera has been seen as one of the art forms where, and I hate the word “colorblind” because I don’t think it really exists, but for casting, opera has never really been that concerned about it. If you have an African-American father and then you have an Asian daughter onstage, no one really questions it in opera. With that being said, Danielle has a history with the company, and I know that they just have a really great relationship, and she is a wonderful Butterfly, and she has done the role before. But I did not have any say in her casting.
RM: How has being a Filipino-American affected how you work in opera?
Gammon: That’s so interesting, it really is. Everyone is talking about this right now. I find it very, very important. Do I personally feel like I’ve had to go in a different route? I think so. I mean I don’t know what it would be like to be a Caucasian director. I don’t know what that experience is.
RM: Why Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly?” What makes an opera written in 1904 relevant to today’s audiences?
Gammon: I don’t want to speak for the producers, because they’re the ones that choose it. I can tell you why I think it would be interesting. In our current political climate, I think one of the topics of discussion is the “other.” What this story does is it shows you the relationship between two people that are from completely different cultures, and then what Puccini does that’s so interesting is that he tells the story through the “other’s” eyes rather than his own, so I find that refreshing in a way.
"Madama Butterfly" comes to the Carpenter Theatre on March 24 at 8 p.m. and March 31 at 2:30 p.m. $16 to $120.
