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Photo by Sam Harrel

Photo by Sam Harrel

What: Fairbanks Symphony Association and Opera Fairbanks present"Madama Butterfly"

When: 7 p.m. tonight and 4 p.m. SUnday

Where: Davis Concert Hall, UAF, Fine Arts Building

Tickets $30 general, $25 seniors and military, $10 students. Available at The Alaska House, Hoitt's Music, The Artworks, New Horizons Gallery, the box office an hour before showtime, 474-5733 or www.fairbankssymphony.org.

A plucky New Yorker stood in the back of Davis Concert Hall, blithely chatting with a group of women dressed in kimonos with paper fans and parasols. She trailed the group as they marched down the aisle toward the stage, exhaled and said to no one in particular, “Well, here we go.”

“AAAAA- CO-RA UN PAS-SO OR VIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” burst out of her tiny frame, filling the enormous concert hall with her bold soprano.

From that moment, through the next three acts, Teresa Eickel — who has been hailed by opera critics as “heart-stopping” and “extraordinary” — embodies “Madama Butterfly” as the tragic and romantic character Cio-Cio-San.

“It’s so interesting and it’s such a beautiful role,” said Eickel, who traveled to Fairbanks from New York City to play the lead role in Giacomo Puccini’s masterpiece.

The production, a collaboration between Fairbanks Symphony Association and Opera Fairbanks, is quite an undertaking for the two groups. It features local singers in the chorus and music by the Fairbanks Symphony, conducted by Eduard Zilberkant, and some giants in the American opera world.

Set in Nagasaki in the early 1900s, the opera follows Cio-Cio-San — the name means “butterfly” in Japanese — who is the 15-year-old daughter of a samurai. She marries U.S. Navy Lt. Pinkerton at the height of American imperialism.

“Pinkerton is so arrogant, he doesn’t see the Japanese or Butterfly as a person,” Eickel said. “He doesn’t think she’s capable of everlasting love, so he goes to get a ‘real American wife’ but she’s completely in love with him. She gives up everything for him.”

Pinkerton returns to America and marries another woman, but finds out Butterfly is pregnant with his child and comes back to Japan with his American wife to take the baby away. The disloyalty leads to Cio-Cio-San to her tragic end, as she decides that “Death with honor is better than life with dishonor.”

“There are parts in the third act — and Puccini wrote it so brilliantly — that there’s space, actual silence on the stage and it’s exactly the thing you might picture when someone’s suffering the ultimate betrayal,” Eickel said. “In the audience, in that silence, you can hear people crying.”

The groups got together for their first full rehearsal on Tuesday. The Fairbanks Symphony members filled two-thirds of the stage, while the opera singers stood downstage. The Italian opera is subtitled using a projector screen that hangs high above the stage.

The main players have all been brought in from Outside for this performance, with local singers making up the chorus.

David Cangelos, playing Goro, made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Mime in “Das Rheingold” and returned this past season for performances of Incredibile in “Andrea Chenier” and Tinca in “Il Tabarro.” He’s also performed with world-renowned operatic tenor Placido Domingo, the Washington Opera and made his Carnegie Hall debut with the Cleveland Orchestra as Torquemada in “Ravel’s L’Heure Espagnole.”

Joshua Shaw plays Pinkerton and played the role at Opera in the Ozarks in 2007. The young tenor has also sung with Opera Las Vegas, Opera Pasadena, Riverside Little Opera and Opera in the Ozarks, among others.

Baritone Kevin Kees, playing Sharpless, recently graduated with a master’s degree from Illinois State University. He’s performed with the Nashville Opera, Opera Theater of St. Louis, Virginia Opera, Opera North, Opera Illinois and the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Mezzo soprano Leneida Crawford is well-known to audiences as a soloist in both oratorio and recital venues. An advocate of American music, she has presented recitals of American art songs throughout the nation, and is currently working with pianist Susan Ricci on an album of American art songs.

Eickel made her debut as Cio-Cio-San in the 2004-2005 season with Mobile Opera, and repeated the role with Ashlawn Opera Festival, the San Francisco Lyric Opera and the Bear Valley Music Festival. She’s scheduled play the role at the Center City Opera Theater in Philadelphia at the end of May, but had the time and agreed to do the Fairbanks show.

“They had another singer who cancelled about three weeks out, and her agent knew mine, so she said, ‘Call Teresa,’ so they did. I said, ‘Alaska? Of course,’” she said.

For the Interior Alaskans lucky enough to perform with these opera greats, gushing is not uncommon.

“You feel a little out of your element with people who have talent like this,” said Hannah Gomez, who traveled from Delta Junction to perform with the group. “I’m 21, I just graduated and I can’t believe that I’m singing with these people — people who have sung at the Met.”

She’s part of Delta Junction’s Whitestone Choir, and joined the production with the group’s director, Emerson William Eads, and her friend Nika Greenleaf.

“We feel very privileged to do this. We didn’t realize that we’d be acting and singing with these famous people,” Greenleaf said. “It’s really incredible that we have this opportunity.”