VIDEO: Watch A New Trailer For The Met Opera's MADAMA BUTTERFLY
Puccini’s heartbreaking tragedy returns in an evocative staging by late filmmaker Anthony Minghella, with soprano Eleonora Buratto making her role debut as Cio-Cio-San.
By: Alan Henry Feb. 16, 2022
Soprano Eleonora Buratto takes on the touchstone title role of the tragic geisha, following earlier Met successes as Norina in Don Pasquale and Liù in Turandot. Tenor Brian Jagde is the callous American naval officer who betrays her, alongside mezzo-soprano Elizabeth DeShong as her devoted maid Suzuki and baritone David Bizic as the consul Sharpless. Alexander Soddy conducts Anthony Minghella's evocative, ever-popular staging.
The production will run March 19th through May 7th, 2022.
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, and film, Broadway, and popular culture in general have riffed endlessly on it. The lyric beauty of Puccini's score, especially the music for the thoroughly believable lead role, has made Butterfly timeless.
The opera takes place in the Japanese port city of Nagasaki at the turn of the last century, at a time of expanding American 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 colorings and sonorities throughout. But the opera rests squarely on the performer of the title role: On stage for most of the time, Cio-Cio-San is the only character that experiences true (and tragic) development. The singer must convey an astounding array of emotions and characteristics, from ethereal to fleshly to intelligent to dreamy-bordering-on-insane, to resigned in the final scene.
For tickets and more visit https://www.metopera.org/season/2021-22-season/madama-butterfly/
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