Other characters include the Official Registrar (baritone) Cio-cio-san's mother and aunt (mezzo-sopranos) her cousin (soprano) her mute child and a chorus of relatives and sailors. We also have Suzuki, Butterfly's servant (mezzo-soprano) Kate Pinkerton (mezzo-soprano) Goro, a marriage broker (tenor) Prince Yamadori (tenor) Butterfly's uncle, The Bonze (bass) the Imperial Commissioner (bass). The main characters are Madama Butterfly, or Cio-cio-san (soprano) Lieutenant Pinkerton of the US Navy (tenor) Sharpless, the US Consul to Nagasaki (baritone). Ever since, Madame Butterfly has been a mainstay of opera houses around the world. The retooled opera was a hit, and debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in 1907. The two-act opera was badly received and Puccini did a swift rework, splitting the long second act into two and making other tweaks. But Puccini's masterpiece had chequered beginnings.īutterfly, with a libretto by Ilica and Giacosa, from the book by John Luther Long and the play by David Belasco, premiered on 17 February, 1904 at La Scala in Milan. Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly (Madame Butterfly), a mainstay of the Opera season at the Arena di Verona, is also one of the mainstays of the opera repertory. Using the principal themes and arias taken from the Naxos recording of the complete work, Thomson Smillie is informative yet entertaining, enabling the listener to get more from this remarkable art form.Tickets for the 2023 Verona Opera Festival are now available, with a wide range of performances premiering with Aida on the 16th June 2023 and ending with La Traviata on the 9th September 2023. This series introduces, in words and music, the plot and background of major operas. The fate of Madama Butterfly – married to an American sailor and then abandoned – engages our emotions, as it obviously did Puccini’s, to a degree equalled by few other opera heroines.
The title heroine has a fragility wonderfully expresed in her entry music, deep sexual instincts as shown in the love duet, and immense tragic stature in her last hours. Madama Butterfly really does run the gamut of operatic emotion. Opera Explained: Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (Audiobook CD)Īn introduction to Puccini’s opera, which is suitable for music-lovers as well as the most intellectual listener.
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