Giacomo Puccini: Madama Butterfly

Photo: MONARDA Music

$1.90 - $49.90

About this event

This exquisite and highly-acclaimed production from La Scala is predominantly Oriental. The Japanese producer, Keita Asari, has not only cast two of the Far East's leading singers in Puccini's coveted female roles, but has also collaborated with Japanese specialists in lighting, choreography and design. The staging is subdued - like an Oriental ink painting, with white paper screens, a Japanese garden consisting only of rocks and sand and Cio-Cio-San's wooden house, which is still being built, in full view of the audience, before the overture begins.

The internationally-renowned soprano Yasuki Hayashi sings the powerful role of Cio-Cio-San (Madama Butterfly) with Hak-Nam Kim as Suzuki, her servant, Peter Dvorský as Pinkerton, the American naval officer who deserts his Japanese wife, and Giorgio Zancanaro as the American Consul, Sharpless. Lorin Maazel conducts a "...masterful performance of Madama Butterfly - one of the great lyrical-tragic operas of all time." (International Herald Tribune)

Puccini first discovered the American play Madam Butterfly, by David Belasco, while on a visit to London in 1900. The romanticised Oriental atmosphere centring round the lonesome, selfless figure of Cio-Cio-San, who has been deserted by both her American husband and Japanese family, immediately attracted him. In collaboration with the librettists of La Boheme and Tosca - Giacosa and Illica - Puccini produced a score full of exotic and lyrical music which remains one of his most popular and successful operas.

"A splendid production...a success for everybody, from the leading lady Yasuko Hayashi to the producer Keita Asari and the conductor Lorin Maazel." (La Repubblica)

"...a triumph for La Scala" (Il Giornale d'Italia)

Composers

Giacomo Puccini

Featuring

Lorin Maazel,

Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano,

Coro del Teatro alla Scala di Milano,

Yasuko Hayashi,