Palm Beach Daily News, p. 4, Monday, March 11, 1991
By Juliette de Marcellus, Daily News Music Critic

The Palm Beach Opera production of Madama Butterfly which opened Friday night at the West Palm Beach Auditorium, was not the company's first production of the Puccini tragedy, but it was the most successful to date.

Much of the strength of the production can be credited to the immediacy of the acting and stage direction in conjunction with the authority with which Yasuko Hayashi sings this role.

Hayashi managed to convey Butterfly's vulnerability despite this power, chiefly because she was magnificently sustained in her dramatic role by the rest of the cast, which conspired to convince one of her helplessness.

Outstanding in this was Drexel Hallaway in the role of the U.S. consul, Sharpless.  Sharpless is always a sympathetic and binding role, musically and dramatically, but he made the role almost central.  Rather than the usual straight man to Lt. Pinkerton's more important part, Sharpless became pivotal to the unfolding drama.  He acted the part of the Yankee diplomat with a simple conviction that made his foreboding, his embarrassment and his anger very real.  His voice is always rich and reliable; it became a dramatic tool.
 

The Palm Beach Post, p. 3D, Monday, March 11, 1991
By John Eldridge, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Soprano Yasuko Hayashi enchanted the crowd with her memorable starring performance in the Palm Beach Opera's production of Puccini's Madama Butterfly Friday night.

In the role of the heartless American lieutenant Pinkerton, Joseph Wolverton seemed to be a bit off vocally, as if he had a frog in his throat.

Drexel Hallaway was more convincing as Sharpless, the U.S. consul who acts as uncomfortable intermediary between Butterfly and Pinkerton.  Vocally his baritone was steady and easy to listen to.