Madama Butterfly

by Giacomo Puccini
Opera Screening

An NCPA-The Metropolitan Opera (New York) Presentation

The title character of Madama Butterfly—a young Japanese geisha who clings to the belief that her arrangement with a visiting American naval officer is a loving and permanent marriage—is one of the defining roles in opera. The story triggers ideas about cultural and sexual imperialism for people far removed from the opera house. Film, Broadway and popular culture in general have riffed endlessly on it. The lyrical beauty of Puccini’s score, especially the music for the thoroughly believable lead role, has made Butterfly timeless.

Giacomo Puccini was immensely popular in his own lifetime, and his mature works remain staples in the repertory of most of the world’s opera companies. The opera takes place in the Japanese port city of Nagasaki at the turn of the last century, at a time of America’s expanding international presence. Japan was hesitantly defining its global role and Nagasaki was one of the country’s few ports open to foreign ships. Temporary marriages for foreign sailors were not unusual. Puccini achieved a new level of sophistication with his use of the orchestra in this score, with subtle colourings and sonorities throughout. But the opera rests squarely on the performer of the title role. Onstage for most of the time, Cio-Cio-San is the only character who experiences true (and tragic) development. The singer must convey an astounding array of emotions and characteristics—from ethereal to fleshly, from intelligent to dreamy-bordering-on-insane, and finally, resigned to the inevitable.

Conductor: Xian Zhang
Cast: Asmik Grigorian, Elizabeth De Shong, Jonathan Tetelman & Lucas Meacham

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