FSCJ Artist Series Beyond Broadway Presents MADAMA BUTTERFLY By Teatro Lirico D'Europa 

The opera Madama Butterfly, performed by Teatro Lirico D'Eurpopa, will be presented by the FSCJ Artist Series, sponsored by VyStar Credit Union, on Wednesday, February 1, 2023 at 7:30 p.m at the Jacksonville Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets are on sale now at fscjartistseries.org.

This is a full scale traditional Italian production of Puccini's Madama Butterfly. It will be performed in the original Italian with English supertitles. There will be a full orchestra, chorus and international soloists under the baton of Metropolitan Opera conductor Gregory Buchalter. The opera will feature beautiful sets, costumes and lighting designs by Giorgio Lalov.

In Puccini's opera, MADAMA BUTTERFLY, the American naval captain B. F. Pinkerton, is exploring the world in the name of pleasure. "Life is not worth living if I can't win the best and fairest of each country," he declares. He sets his sights on the best and fairest of this land: the stunning Japanese beauty Cio-Cio-San.

Pinkerton is fascinated by her exotic beauty and marries her on sight, while Cio-Cio-San, enthralled by his American ways and promise of a modern life in America, falls wholeheartedly in love with the stranger. But Pinkerton already has a foot out the door, looking forward to the day he will marry "a real wife, a wife from America."

Several years pass, and Cio-Cio-San waits faithfully for her husband's return from distant shores. Long abandoned by her family, she is alone with her servant Suzuki and a living memento of her American love. She refuses all offers of marriage, singing of her great hope for the day Pinkerton will return. The faithful Suzuki tries in vain to convince her to abandon hope. But when his ship comes in, Pinkerton is not alone. As dawn breaks, what will become of Butterfly's great hope?

Tickets prices start at $33.75 and are on sale at fscjartistseries.org or by phone at (904) 632-5000.

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