Madama Butterfly at Grand Théâtre de Genève

Nagasaki, 1904. The main point of entry of Western commercial and military power to the isolated island empire is now used to the foreign sailors and merchants taking a long or short-term lease on a house and a wife. B.F. Pinkerton of the US Navy has found the perfect deal to spend his shore leave. The hillcrest house has a splendid harbour view and his rental bride is as delicate and lively as the pretty flower-plunderers after which she takes her name. But Cio-Cio San is no mere sing-song girl; from her samurai ancestors she has received a sense of duty and loyalty harder than the steel of her father's sword. And she fully intends to be the most loving of wives to the handsome gaijin naval officer she is marrying, to the shame and disgrace of her family, the man who intends to enjoy her briefly before returning to the USA to get married for real...