2006/2007 Season Opera

Giacomo Puccini : MADAMA BUTTERFLY

OPERA HOUSE

Madama Butterfly	:	Okazaki Takako
Pinkerton	:	Giuseppe Giacomini
Sharpless	:	Christopher Robertson
Suzuki	:	Obayashi Tomoko
Goro	:	Uchiyama Shingo
Bonzo	:	Shimamura Takeo
Il commissario imperiale	:	Ryu Shinichiro
Yamadori	:	Kobayashi Yoshiki
Kate	:	Yamashita Makiko
L'ufficiale del registro	:	Miyamoto Toshikazu
Chorus	:	New National Theatre Chorus
Orchestra	:	Tokyo Symphony Orchestra

March 2007	22	25	28	31
	Thu	Sun	Wed	Sat
2:00		X		X
6:30			X
7:00	X

Doors will open 45 minutes before the opening of the performance.
Approximate running time : 2 hours 30 minutes

	S	A	B	C	D	Z
Price(yen)	15,750	12,600	8,400	5,250	3,150	1,500

Even amid Puccini's masterpieces, this work has won global popularity for the beauty of its score and its story filled with love and sadness. It overflows with musical highlights, among them Cio-Cio-san's famous aria "Un bel di," and even a novice operagoer will be captivated by her transformation from a beautiful young girl into a woman of hidden strengths. In the demanding title role we have Okazaki Takako, an internationally renowned soprano who has performed to high acclaim with a number of outstanding opera companies, including the Volksoper Wien

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.