Throughout the first act, she seemed to be drifting into her sham marriage with the faithless Pinkerton in a blissful dream, borne along on the billowing strains of Puccini’s music. Where Haroutounian’s Tosca had been knowingly calculating - using her technical prowess to create a fully rounded portrait of a stage animal - her portrait of the ill-fated teenage geisha Cio-Cio-San traced a progression from naivete to fierce determination.
Yet it was a joy not only to bask once again in the magnificence of her singing but also to hear it transferred, beautifully intact, to a new dramatic forum. These qualities were amply on display in 2014. No one could say that the splendor of Haroutounian’s artistry - the shimmery firmness of her sound, the voluptuous swell and fall of her vocal phrasing, the intensity and grandeur of her stage presence - came as any kind of surprise. And oh, my sisters and brothers in impatience, it is definitely time. 6, came the hypnotically fine opening performance of “Madama Butterfly,” with Haroutounian once again singing the title role. “Is it time yet?” we’d ask, in the plaintive tones of a toddler confined to an overlong car trip. It’s been two years since soprano Lianna Haroutounian made her superb San Francisco Opera debut in the title role of Puccini’s “Tosca,” and some of us have passed the days since then watching the calendar, waiting for her return to the War Memorial Opera House. Amy Osborne/Special To The Chronicle Show More Show Less Amy Osborne/Special To The Chronicle Show More Show Less 6 of6 Lianna Haroutounian as Cio-Cio-San in SF Opera's final dress rehearsal of Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" on Thursday, in San Francisco, Calif. Amy Osborne/Special To The Chronicle Show More Show Less 5 of6 Lianna Haroutounian as Cio-Cio-San (left) and Zanda �vede as Suzuki in SF Opera's final dress rehearsal of Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" on Thursday, in San Francisco, Calif. Amy Osborne/Special To The Chronicle Show More Show Less 4 of6 Lianna Haroutounian as Cio-Cio-San (front) and Zanda �vede as Suzuki in SF Opera's final dress rehearsal of Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" on Thursday, in San Francisco, Calif. Pinkerton in SF Opera's final dress rehearsal of Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" on Thursday, in San Francisco, Calif. Amy Osborne/Special To The Chronicle Show More Show Less 3 of6 Vincenzo Costanzo as Lt.
Amy Osborne/Special To The Chronicle Show More Show Less 2 of6 Lianna Haroutounian as Cio-Cio-San in SF Opera's final dress rehearsal of Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" on Thursday, in San Francisco, Calif.
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