1630-1640: Japan establishes the “sakoku” policy, which prohibits immigration and emigration in the country and strictly limits foreign trade: the only place that maintains trade relations with Europe is Dejima, an artificial islet located in the bay of Nagasaki.
1853: Japan is forced to open two ports to trade with the United States as a direct result of the Treaty of Kanagawa, ending centuries of a Japanese foreign policy of isolation and closed borders.
One of the effects of this commercial opening of Japan was the emergence of a marked interest among Western artists in the decorative arts, aesthetics, clothing and crafts of Japan. The World Exhibitions of London (1862) and Paris (1867) showed works by Japanese artists in Europe for the first time.
Artists such as Manet, Degas, Monet, Cassatt, Toulouse-Lautrec and van Gogh, among others, began to incorporate Japanese themes and designs into their own works: Japonisme was born.
This interest in Japan helped make Pierre Loti's works a resounding success, including the novel Madame Chrysanthème (1887), one of the sources of inspiration for Madama Butterfly. The musical world was also influenced by Japonism: the opera La Princesse Jaune (1872) by Camille Saint-Saëns, the opera The Mikado (1885) by Gilbert and Sullivan, and the operetta The Geisha (1896) by Sydney Jones, are some examples. Adapting David Belasco's Madame Butterfly (based on a popular tale by John Luther Long) which he saw in London in 1900, Puccini completed a colossal and fascinating score in equal parts: a true masterpiece. He collaborated again with the librettists Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa (with whom he had already created La bohème and Tosca ) to adapt the tragic story of Cio-Cio-San.
Cio-Cio-San, the young Japanese fiancée of the American naval officer Lieutenant Pinkerton, represents a broken dream: she believes she is entering into a real marriage, but it represents a short, romantic idyll destroyed when he abandons her shortly after they are married. She will live chasing the dream of his return; a tragic hope. She, who has renounced her religion and community, learns too late that for Pinkerton her marriage is simply an illusion, with tragic consequences.
Three years later, Cio-Cio-San and her son, Dolore, see Pinkerton's ship in the harbour. She looks forward to his visit, but when Pinkerton and his American wife Kate arrive and want to take the boy to America, Cio-Cio-San says goodbye to her son and takes her own life. Although the premiere at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan in 1904 was poorly received, Puccini revised the opera for performances in Brescia that same year. Madama Butterfly quickly became a very popular opera and remains one of Puccini's best-loved works.
Leiser-Caurier's exquisite production is inspired precisely by the images of Japan in Europe during the 19th century.
Sonya Yoncheva, Saioa Hernández and Ailyn Pérez will play the sad oriental heroine willing to sacrifice herself in the face of the cruel reality of betrayal.
