Madama Butterfly

  • 2013/2014 Season
  • Giacomo Puccini:Madama Butterfly
    Opera in 2 Acts
    Sung in Italian with Japanese Supertitles
  • OPERA HOUSE

Kuriyama Tamiya's production of Madama Butterfly has been part of the NNTT opera line-up five times since 2005, the year it premiered. The stage is backdropped by a fluttering American flag, which symbolizes the servant-master relationship between East and West that is explored in the original work. Keri-Lynn Wilson will conduct, becoming the first woman conductor to perform here at NNTT. Ms. Wilson maintains an active performance schedule in the US and Europe. The role of Cio-Cio San will be sung by Alexia Voulgaridou, making her NNTT debut. Pinkerton will be sung by Mikhail Agafonov, who gave a much-lauded performance in our 2010 production of Andrea Chénier in the title role. Sharpless will be sung by Kai Eijiro, who currently performs with the Vienna State Opera. Mr. Kai also sang Sharpless in the 2011 NNTT production of Madama Butterfly.

SYNOPSIS

The setting is Nagasaki in the Meiji Era. The U.S. naval officer Pinkerton buys the freedom of 15-year-old Cio-Cio-San in Nagasaki, where his ship docked, and marries her without giving it too much thought. Pinkerton soon departs for America. Despite his long silence, Cio-Cio-San waits for her husband's return in the belief that "one fine day he will come back" and turns down a new proposal of marriage. Finally Pinkerton's ship calls at Nagasaki again. But he is accompanied by his wife Kate. Having seen an unfamiliar American woman and learned the whole truth, Cio-Cio-San kills herself with a dagger left by her father.

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