Madama Butterfly

| About

Madama Butterfly by the Italian composer Puccini takes place in Japan around the turn of the 20th century. It is one of the most popular operas in the world and is also considered one of the most beautiful ones. It is a tragic story about love, the longing for a better life, shattered dreams and loss.

Michiel Dijkema is the Stage Director of the production. He has staged many well known productions around the world s.a. Tosca in Leipzig, Turandot in Magdeburg and La Vie Parisienne at Vienna Staatsoper. He designes the set himself but María Th. Ólafsdóttir designes the costumes.

Cio Cio San is a young Japanese geisha who falls in love with a US Navy officer with fatal consequences. He marries her but she dreams of a better life away from poverty and hardship. When he leaves Japan, she is pregnant with their son, but he didn´t know before he left. She waits for him for three years convinced that he will come back for her and bring her with him to the United States.

He returns after three years with his American wife who has agreed to raise her son. In one instant all her dreams die and the only way for her is to take her own life.

The opera premiered at La Scala on February 17^th 1904 and was not received well at all by the audience. The composer was heartbroken and returned the fee he had received for the commission.

After some changes in the score the opera was shown again a few months later in Brescia and was a big success. It has ever since been one of the most beloved of all operas around the world.

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