Giacomo Puccini
Madama Butterfly
This production ran: Oct 11 - Apr 11
This Production is in the past
Overview
All remaining performances in the 2019–20 season have been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Click here to learn more.
Leading sopranos Hui He and Ana María Martínez share the heartbreaking title role of the doomed geisha, with tenors Piero Pretti and Bruce Sledge as the American naval officer who abandons her. Paulo Szot and Markus Brück share the role of Sharpless, and Elizabeth DeShong is Suzuki, alternating with MaryAnn McCormick. Pier Giorgio Morandi is on the podium for Anthony Minghella’s sweeping production, a perennial audience favorite.
A co-production of the Metropolitan Opera, English National Opera, and the Lithuanian National Opera
Production a gift of Mercedes and Sid Bass
Revival a gift of Barbara Augusta Teichert
Languages
Languages sung in Madama Butterfly
Sung In
Italian
Titles
Title languages displayed for Madama Butterfly
Met Titles In
- English
- German
- Spanish
- Italian
Timeline
Timeline for the show, Madama Butterfly
Estimated Run Time
3 hrs 15 mins
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House Opens
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Act I
60 mins
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Intermission
30 mins
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Act II
50 mins
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Intermission
20 mins
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Act III
35 mins
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Opera Ends
World premiere: Teatro alla Scala, Milan, 1904. Met premiere: February 11, 1907. 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.
Creators
Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924) was immensely popular in his own lifetime, and his mature works remain staples in the repertory of most of the world’s opera companies. His librettists for Madama Butterfly, Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, had also collaborated with the composer on his previous two operas, Tosca and La Bohème. Giacosa, a dramatist, was responsible for the stories and Illica, a poet, worked primarily on the words themselves.
PRODUCTION
Anthony Minghella
DIRECTOR / CHOREOGRAPHER
Carolyn Choa
SET DESIGNER
Michael Levine
COSTUME DESIGNER
Han Feng
LIGHTING DESIGNER
Peter Mumford
PUPPETRY
Blind Summit Theatre
COMPOSER
Giacomo Puccini
Videos
Setting
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.
Music
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.
