Name: Madama Butterfly
Start: 2024-07-22
End: 2024-07-22
Location: Bryanston School

Organization

Admin

Dorset Opera Festival

Conductor

José Miguel Esandi

Set designer

Rufus Martin

Costume designer

Stewart J Charlesworth

Italian

Madama Butterfly -  (Madame Butterfly)

Blandford Forum

United Kingdom

Bryanston School

Coade Theatre

Public

Madame Butterfly

Joshua Dos

English

Approved

Giacomo Puccini has played a large part in our operatic  output over the past 50 years but, surprisingly, we have only presented Five of his works, some more than once: Edgar (1980), Manon Lescaut (1990 & 2022), Tosca (2011), La bohème (2018) and Turandot (1978 in the Alfano completion and 2007 - in both the Alfano completion and the British Stage Première of the new Luciano Berio completion).

The story of Madama Butterfly is well known. Set in  Nagasaki, it tells the story of the visiting naval officer, Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton, who is determined to find himself a young Japanese bride. With the assistance of the American Consul and the local marriage broker, he succeeds in marrying Ciòciò-san. Not long after the wedding, Pinkerton has to return to the States.

Several years later, the Consul, Sharpless, comes back to meet Ciòciò-san. He has received a letter telling him that Pinkerton is returning to Nagasaki, but he needs Sharpless to give her some information before he arrives… the Consul asks her what she would do if Pinkerton were never to return. At this point, she reveals that she had given birth to a son not long after Pinkerton had left Japan and beseeches Sharpless to break the news to him.

Not long after Sharpless’ departure, Ciòciò-san and her maid, Suzuki, watch Pinkerton’s ship arriving in the distant harbour and decorate the house to welcome him. He doesn’t arrive so Butterfly stays up all night awaiting his arrival. Exhausted, she falls asleep as Sharpless and Pinkerton arrive with his American wife, Kate…

Madame Butterfly by Puccini, Mon 22 Jul 2024, From (2024/2024), Conductor José Miguel Esandi, Bryanston School, Blandford Forum, United Kingdom

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Crew

Program, About & Synopsis

Further reading

Performance Dates & Venues

Venues