Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly’s classic opera by Giacomo Puccini is being performed at various venues throughout the UK.
Originally written by John Luther Long in 1898, the opera also takes references from the novel, Madame Chrysanthème (1887).
Madama Butterfly first premiered at La Scala, Italy in 1904 and is rated as one of the most popular operas of all time.
The story is set in Nagasaki, Japan in 1904. Cio-Cio San (Butterfly) is a 15 year old Japanese girl in line to marry a U.S. Naval officer called Pinkerton. However, Pinkerton is only looking for a marriage of convenience and sets off back to America shortly after the wedding.
Cio-Cio San, hopelessly in love, longs for the day when he will return to Japan, however her happiness is short lived when Pinkerton comes back, only to have re-married an American woman. A devastated Cio-Cio San cannot take the pain and slashes her throat. Pinkerton finds her but it is too late.
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