Madama Butterfly - Schedule, Program & Tickets

Madama Butterfly

American Lieutenant Pinkerton anchored his ship in Nagasaki harbor. To pass the time, he has courted the only 15-year-old geisha Cio-Cio-San, called Butterfly, who comes from a noble but impoverished family and takes their love very seriously. Pinkerton wants to go with her a "temporary marriage" - at that time not unusual between European men and geishas - and even, with the help of the matchmaker Goro, a small house for the honeymoon together. When American Consul Sharpless warns him about this marriage, he makes fun of his friend, even bumping into the day he celebrates his "real" wedding with an American. For the young Japanese woman, who out of love has even converted to the faith of her lover, the connection with the foreigner has painful consequences: she is rejected by her family after the marriage ceremony is completed. It is difficult for Pinkerton to comfort his "butterfly".
Three years have passed. With her faithful servant, Suzuki, and her young child, Cio-Cio-San leads a life of seclusion. All attempts of Prince Yamadori to ask for her hand, rejects them, as she believes unwaveringly in the return of Pinkerton. When Sharpless finally comes to Pinkerton with a message asking him to prepare for his imminent return to Nagasaki and his recent marriage to American Kate, he finds himself shaken that she has a child. He does not dare to do his job and tells her only about Pinkerton's arrival. Cio-Cio-san is happy. Together with Suzuki, she decorates her house, puts on her wedding dress and awaits her lover.

When Pinkerton arrives with his wife Kate and the consul at the door, Suzuki learns the whole truth. She is to persuade Butterfly to give her child. Pinkerton does not want to face her in person and runs away. Butterfly sees the strange woman, and suddenly she realizes: Pinkerton has not come to return to her, but to take the child with her. She asks for a half hour delay and says goodbye to her little son. Then she puts an end to her life.

"There are opposites in the theater: arousing interest, surprising and stirring. What do I have to do with heroes and immortal characters? In such environment I do not like it. I'm not the musician of big things, I feel the little things, and only they love me to handle. So I liked Manon, because she was a girl of heart and nothing about it ... And so I liked Butterfly, because she is such a clear, feminine thing, but knows how to love until death. "Puccini has MADAMA BUTTERFLY as life his favorite and also best work designates. In fact, it corresponds to his self-chosen maxim of "music of small things" almost masterful. Delicately detailed musical details, an enchanting melody in the vocal line, unobtrusively inserted exotic elements and a sensitive mixture of timbres in the orchestra have not only made the work immortal with the audience, but also many composers of the following generations - as well as the other operas by Puccini - to become a role model. However, the popular success did not materialize until after some changes of the composer. In the revised form, the opera was then performed for the first time on May 28, 1904 in Brescia. It had now been extended from the original two to three acts; the interlude between the second and third act with the famous "humm choir" was also added. The staging of the Deutsche Oper Berlin focuses on the tragedy of the young woman, who remains true to her love, even if she seems hopeless to all others. In the atmospheric, never folkloristic-looking stage equipment, the magic of this work unfolds particularly impressive.

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