Madama Butterfly

ABOUT PERFORMANCE

"Butterfly" is indisputably one of the most popular and most artistically valued operas of all time. Notwithstanding the fact that it has perhaps the simplest plot of all Puccini’s operas: a "Yankee", Lieutenant F. B. Pinkerton, enchanted by the picturesque Japanese milieu and the 15-year-old Cio-Cio San, nicknamed "Butterfly", decides to marry and spend the honeymoon in Nagasaki. He soon abandons his young wife, but after a long time returns so as to take away the child Cio-Cio San has given birth to in the meantime.  

In this work, Puccini eschewed intricate action and boisterous dramatic events, opting instead for an intimate story and highlighting the psychology of the characters, fleshing out by his music the tiniest details, oscillations and extreme emotional surges, the essential contrast between the Japanese and "Western" mentality, which he also aptly renders by means of many a time surprisingly modified quotations of the US national anthem, as well as giving a forcible depiction of the local colour of Japan, where the story is set.  

With Czech and English subtitles.

CAST AND CREATIVE

Soloists of the National Theatre Opera

The State Opera Chorus

The State Opera Orchestra

Cio-Cio-San: Olga Busuioc
Suzuki: Jana Sýkorová
F. B. Pinkerton: Valentyn Dytjuk
Sharpless: Jiří Brückler
Yamadori: Csaba Kotlár
and other

Libretto: Giuseppe Giacosa, Luigi Illica

Musical preparation: Martin Leginus

Conductor: Andrij Jurkevyč

Stage director: Jiří Heřman

Sets: Jiří Heřman, Jan Lukášek

Costumes: Alexandra Grusková

Motion cooperation: Lucie Hayashi

Lighting design: Daniel Tesař

Chorus master: Adolf Melichar