Director Michelle Ainna Cuizon recalls her earliest days growing up in the Philippines, where music and karaoke were ways of life among her family and friends. What she did not connect at the time was that so many of those tunes would inform her career as an opera director.
“Opera has captured me in a way that seems really familiar,” said Cuizon, who recalled hearing some of the genre’s most popular hooks and leitmotifs as a child through movies and cartoons. “I remember hearing the ‘Habañera’ from ‘Carmen’ and that felt very familiar. Once I got to really know and interact with opera, it felt like I was rediscovering my childhood, which music was such a part of because it really was everywhere.”
Cuizon’s personal and artistic journey includes growing up in Manila singing choral music before she and her family moved to New York City, where she began her directing studies.Her career has included a two-year residency in San Jose that ended this past spring.
Cuizon has returned to Opera San Jose as guest director of Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly.”
Puccini’s 1904 masterpiece is set in Japan, where American naval Lt. Pinkerton searches for a girl to gallivant with in the Far East. He meets the 15-year-old Cio-Cio San, which translates to “butterfly,” and proceeds to have what he believes is an unserious marriage, a connection she is taking with the utmost seriousness. When Pinkerton returns three years later with his new American wife, despite Cio-Cio-San awaiting her husband’s return, she feels there is no other choice but to commit suicide.
Despite the lush score and popularity of “Madama Butterfly,” some of the controversies around its views on race and cultural appropriation present a challenge for companies producing the opera. Cuizon is well aware of those issues and is uncomfortable with the opera’s ending. Her entryway into making the story more culturally competent is something that is quite personal.
“Going into that whole emotional journey made me think about my relationship to my mother and the sacrifices she’s made in order for us to be here,” Cuizon said. “It’s any director’s job to find that voice, and I feel we need to have a different point of view with a different lens, with my ideas coming to life. I’m really grateful for this company to give me the casting I needed to get this right.”
That casting includes native San Diegan and soprano Emily Michiko Jensen singing the title role. Jensen, an Opera San Jose artist in residence, grew up frequenting San Diego Opera with her parents and younger sister, even performing as a supernumerary in a production of “Madama Butterfly” when she was 8. She also spent many years attending Japanese school, her mother having been born and raised in Japan. It’s an education that has not just shaped her purview but her abilities to advocate for a more whole viewing of Cio-Cio-San.
For Jensen, being under Cuizon’s direction means being part of a really special collaborative that gives agency to her approach in the role.
“Working with Michelle, when we get to these moments where a scene may have certain problematic issues sort of baked into it, we have time to undo it,” said Jensen, who sang the role of Fiordiligi in Opera San Jose’s production of Mozart’s “Cosi Fan Tutte” in September. “It can be tricky, but Michelle has made it a very easy dialogue to have, which I’m very grateful for.”
Jensen is clear-eyed when it comes to her own representation. She is leery of being in a space that only sees her as an Asian opera singer, which can happen in the industry. But when she was cast as Fiordiligi within the same season, it was an opportunity for two transformative debut roles in her ascendant career, and a chance to affirm her talents as a wide-ranging artist.
“I felt like I was being cast as a complete person who is very proud of my ethnicity, heritage and my background,” Jensen said. “When it comes to casting, specifically for this production, I really love the thoughtfulness behind it, because seeing Michelle’s name, I was like, ‘Ok, you have a director that’s going to give a different vision.’”
Cuizon is extremely grateful for the company’s trust in her artistry and vision. “Opera San Jose equipped me to do my own staging, so I really have the canvas now to reimagine.”
“Madama Butterfly” runs through Nov. 30 at the California Theatre, 345 S. First St., in downtown San Jose. Tickets are $58-$215 at operasj.org or 408-437-4450.
David John Chávez is chair of the American Theatre Critics/Journalists Association and a two-time juror for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (‘22-‘23); @davidjchavez.bsky.social.