2008/2009 Season Opera
[Repertory]

Giacomo Puccini :Madama Butterfly

OPERA HOUSE

Madama Butterfly	:	Karine Babajanyan
Pinkerton	:	Massimiliano Pisapia
Sharpless	:	Ales Jenis
Suzuki	:	Obayashi Tomoko
Goro	:	Matsuura Ken
Lo zio Bonzo	:	Shimamura Takeo
Il commissario imperiale	:	Ryu Shinichiro
Il principe Yamadori	:	Kudo Hiroshi
Kate Pinkerton	:	Yamashita Makiko
Chorus	:	New National Theatre Chorus
Orchestra	:	Tokyo Symphony Orchestra

January 2009	12	15	18	21	24
	Mon	Thu	Sun	Wed	Sat
2:00	X	X	X		X
7:00				X

Doors will open 45 minutes before the opening of the performance.

	S	A	B	C	D	Z
Price(yen)	21,000	15,750	10,500	6,300	3,150	1,500

The NNTT premiere of this production was in June 2005. This will be the third performance of this production. The cast is highlighted by Karine Babajanyan as Madama Butterfly. She has performed this role countless times around the world. Pinkerton is played by Massimiliano Pisapia who thrives in this role, as well as in other Puccini operas. Ales Jenis, a rising young baritone, is the cast of Sharpless. Carlo Montanaro, who is establishing quite a career in Europe, is conducting.

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.