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Minghella's Sold-Out Madam Butterfly Returns to ENO, Spring '06

By: Nov. 17, 2005
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The current 12 performances of Anthony Minghella's new production of Puccini's Madam Butterfly are sold out; the opera will return this spring, however. Returns and standing room tickets are being sold on performance days.

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Some tickets are available from £50 for a Royal Charity Gala performance on Friday, December 16, 2005, in the presence of TRH The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, with proceeds going to The Prince's Trust and the ENO Young Singers Programme. English National Opera (ENO) is now bringing forward booking for eight performances scheduled for Spring/Summer 2006 in the ENO Sky Artsworld 2005/06 Season. Tickets for the following performances are now on sale: April 29, May 5, 10, 12, 16, 25, 27, 31 2006.

These performances of Madam Butterfly will be conducted by ENO's new music director  Oleg Caetani, with Janice Watson in the title role and David Kempster as Sharpless. Gwyn Hughes Jones, as Pinkerton, and Jean Rigby, as Suzuki, both return to the roles they are currently performing.

Madam Butterfly currently features a British cast of 40 principals and chorus led by Mary Plazas (acclaimed by the Sunday Times as "one of the truly great opera artists in Britain today"), Hughes Jones, Christopher Purves and Rigby, supported by Alan Oke, Julian Tovey, Mark Stone and Stephanie Marshall. The new production, which will be sung in English, is conducted by David Parry (who translated from the Italian). The creative team includes also associate director and choreographer Carolyn Choa, set designer Michael Levine, lighting designer Peter Mumford and New York fashion designer Han Feng.

"Madam Butterfly is one of the world's most popular operas. The exquisite beauty of Giacomo Puccini's timeless music underscores an emotional and thrilling story of devotion, honour and betrayal set in Nagasaki, Japan before the First World War. The exotic tale of the young Japanese geisha girl Cio-Cio-San ('Butterfly') and her unwavering love for a callous American Naval Lieutenant has captivated audiences worldwide for over 100 years," as production notes describe the opera. David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly and the Boublil-Schonberg musical Miss Saigon later drew from the story.

Minghella, who has made his reputation on polished film adaptations of novels, directed and wrote the screenplays for Cold Mountain, The Talented Mr. Ripley and The English Patient; he won a Best Director Oscar for the latter and his screenplay was also nominated (as it was for The Talented Mr. Ripley). His other screen credits include Truly, Madly, Deeply and Play. Minghella started out as playwright; he received the London Theater Critics Award in 1984 for Most Promising Playwright and in 1986 for Best Play with Made In Bangkok.

For tickets and further information visit: www.eno.org/madambutterfly.

 


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