Admin

Opernhaus Zürich

Conductor

Marco Armiliato

Stage director

Stage director (+4)

Ted Huffman

Set designer

Set designer (+3)

Michael Levine

Costume designer

Set designer (+1)

Annemarie Woods

Lighting designer

Lighting designer (+3)

Franck Evin

Chorusmaster

Chorusmaster (+3)

Ernst Raffelsberger

Assistant Choreographer

Choreographer (+2)

Sonoko Kamimura-Ostern

Dramaturge

Fabio Dietsche

Soprano (+1)

Marina Rebeka

Cio-Cio-San

Mezzo-soprano (+2)

Judith Schmid

Suzuki

Tenor

Tomislav Mužek

B.F. Pinkerton

Baritone (+1)

Massimo Cavalletti

Sharpless

Tenor (+3)

Nathan Haller

Goro

Bass (+4)

Stanislav Vorobyov

Uncle Bonze

Bass (+2)

Lobel Barun

The imperial commissioner

Flavia Stricker

Kate Pinkerton

Orchestra

The Orchester der Oper Zürich

Extras

Opernhaus Zürich Extras

Opernhaus

Chorus

Zurich Opera Chorus

Baritone (+2)

Steffan Lloyd Owen

Prince Yamadori

The official registrar

She most recently impressed Zurich audiences as Leonora in Verdi’s Il trovatore. Now the internationally celebrated soprano Marina Rebeka returns in the title role of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. Giacomo Puccini followed up on the successes of La bohème and Tosca by leaving European soil for this opera, which juxtaposes Western and Eastern mentalities. In what would be his most ambitious score to date, he pulled inspiration from his recent introduction to Japanese culture, juxtaposing them with a raw, Western musical style.
The real conflict in this «Japanese tragedy» lies less in the culture clash, and more in the irreconciled principles of a woman bound by faithful love and an unfaithful, instinct-driven man. Before marrying the 15-year-old geisha Cio-Cio-San, naval officer Pinkerton raises a glass of whisky to the day when he is «properly» married to an American woman. The tryst with the attractive Japanese «doll» is no more than an affair during his time abroad. After Pinkerton returns to the United States, Cio-Cio-San waits for his return, in vain. When she learns that he has remarried in his home country and is coming back to take their child to live with him, she sees only one path forward...
American stage director Ted Huffman’s directorial debut at the Opernhaus Zürich was a hit with its overwhelmingly beautiful, serenely abstract images and palpable narrative tension.

ítalska