Organization

Conductor

Victor DeRenzi

Stage director

Stephanie Sundine

Set designer

David P. Gordon

Costume designer

Howard Tsvi Kaplan

Lighting designer

Ken Yunker

Chorus master

Lindsay Woodward

Singer

Soprano

Raquel González

Cio-Cio-San

Tenor

Christopher Oglesby

B.F. Pinkerton

Mezzo-soprano

Heather Johnson

Suzuki

Baritone

Filippo Fontana

Sharpless

Bass

Young-Bok Kim

Uncle Bonze

Chelsea Laggan

Sarasota Opera

Melina Jaharis

Cio-Cio San's mother

Italian

Madama Butterfly -  (Madame Butterfly)

Sarasota

United States

Opera House

Madama Butterfly Puccini

Public

Madame Butterfly

English

Approved

Madama Butterfly

The world première of Madama Butterfly at La Scala on February 17, 1904, was a huge fiasco, recalling the disastrous first performances of two other Italian operas that later became cornerstones of the repertoire, Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia and Verdi’s La traviata. Puccini, in the months before the première, had been confident of success for this new opera, which he considered his best to date. The composer had already penned Manon Lescaut, La bohème, and Tosca, and had inherited Verdi’s position as master of the Italian lyric stage. However, on opening night, the audience’s vocal reaction drowned out both orchestra and singers; the cast and composer endured boos and laughter.
The original version of Madama Butterfly was not the opera the audience had expected from Puccini. Musically, the composer was well aware of his contemporaries. He found the impressionism of Frenchman Claude Debussy intriguing and in Madama Butterfly experimented with new harmonies and musical techniques. Dramatically the opera contained many realistic Japanese details, and no effort was made to relieve the unpleasantness of certain characters, most notably Pinkerton, who did not even have an expected aria. The opera’s two lengthy acts challenged the audience’s attention. Moreover, rumors circulated that some detractors of Puccini, envious of his growing recognition, helped arrange opposition to the new work.
Following the opening night disaster, Puccini and his librettist withdrew the work, returning the fee for performance rights to La Scala. Puccini, however, was confident the opera would eventually succeed. The composer made cuts and revisions, the two acts became three, and Pinkerton was given an exit aria. With these alterations Madama Butterfly triumphed three months later in Brescia on May 28, 1904. However, Puccini continued to change the music and it was not until 1907 that Puccini felt he had attained the definitive edition of the score. It is this version, with a few minor changes, that has become familiar to audiences, and it is the one that Sarasota Opera presents.
Puccini described himself as a man of the theater and always trusted that the story of Cio-Cio-San would affect an audience. Working with his librettists, Puccini demanded a dramatic structure that would center attention on the emotional lives of the characters. Even after he had begun to set the prepared text to music, Puccini persuaded his librettists to cut a scene in the American consulate that he felt would dilute the dramatic swiftness of the story. For his entire career, Puccini searched for suitable subjects for his operas, contemplating at different times works based on Marie Antoinette, the Children’s Crusade, Oscar Wilde’s The Florentine Tragedy and Victor Hugo’s Notre Dame de Paris. He traveled to Paris to discuss Pelléas et Mélisande with its author, Maurice Maeterlinck, only to discover that Debussy was preparing to turn the work into an opera.
Madama Butterfly was written at a time when there was a great deal of interest in Japan. Because it was a great distance away and one of the last countries to open up to foreigners, tales of Japan fascinated Western readers. In 1893, André Messager’s opera, Madame Chrysanthème, based on the 1866 novel of Pierre Loti, told the story of a naval officer and a temporary Japanese wife, though this opera’s tone was ironic and very unsentimental. Pietro Mascagni (the composer of Cavalleria rusticana) in 1898 wrote Iris, another opera set in Japan.
Despite its unsuccessful first performance, Madama Butterfly has become one of the most frequently performed operas in the world, far surpassing the other works set in the Far East written at the time. Puccini’s opera has also influenced works in other media: from the 1962 movie comedy My Geisha starring Shirley MacLaine, to Henry David Hwang’s award winning play M. Butterfly, to the Broadway musical Miss Saigon.
Sarasota Opera last presented Madama Butterfly in 2017. Other Puccini operas produced by the company include Manon Lescaut, La bohème, Tosca, La rondine, La fanciulla del West, and Il trittico (the three one-act operas Il tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi), and Turandot.
 
Greg Trupiano – Greg Trupiano (1955-2020) joined Sarasota Opera in 1987 and was with the company until his death. He was also founder and artistic director of The Walt Whitman Project.

Madame Butterfly by Puccini, From (2023/2023), Directed by Stephanie Sundine,, Conductor Victor DeRenzi, Opera House, Sarasota, United States

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Program, About & Synopsis

Photos

Further reading

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Venues