Dal 30 April al 13 May 2021
Giacomo Puccini
MADAMA BUTTERFLY
Japanese Tragedy in three acts
Libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica
Conductor | Dan Ettinger*
Master of the Chorus | Gea Garatti Ansini
Stage director| Ferzan Özpetek
Set designer | Sergio Tramonti
Costume designer | Alessandro Lai
Cast
Madama Butterfly | Anna Pirozzi (30 April, 4, 6, 8 and 12 May) / Valeria Sepe (2, 5, 7, 11 and 13 May)
F. B. Pinkerton | Giorgio Berrugi (30 April, 4, 6, 8 and 12 May) / Sergio Escobar* (2, 5, 7, 11 and 13 May)
Suzuki | Annalisa Stroppa
Sharpless | Andrzej Filończyk*
Goro | Saverio Fiore
Bonze | Ildo Song
Prince Yamadori | Paolo Orecchia
Kate Pinkerton | Rossella Locatelli
Imperial Commissioner | Enrico Di Geronimo
*debut at Teatro di San Carlo
Orchestra and Chorus of Teatro di San Carlo
Production of Teatro di San Carlo
April - May 2021
SERIE CREMISI
Friday 30 April, h 20.00 - Fee III
Sunday 2 May, h 17.00 - Fee III
Tuesday 4 May, h 20.00 - Fee IV
Wednesday 5 May, h 18.00 - Fee IV
Thursday 6 May, h 18.00 - Fee IV
Friday 7 May, h 20.00 - Fee IV
Saturday 8 May, h 19.00 - Fee III
Tuesday 11 May, h 20.00 - Fee IV
Wednesday 12 May, h 18.00 - Fee IV
Thursday 13 May, h 18.00 - Fee IV
Performances out of Subscription
Language: Sung in Italian with Italian and English surtitles
Running time: about 3 hours, including one interval
The genesis of Butterfly really shows Puccini's intellectual curiosity. He was in London in the summer of 1900 for a performance of Tosca, he attended a play adapted from the Pierre Loti's Madame Crystantheme and he was immediately taken with it. Soon after, he followed meticulously the outline of the libretto by Illica and Giacosa while at the same time gathering ethnic material on Japan thanks to the wife of the Japanese ambassador in Italy. Apart from its premiere at La Scala in Milan which was an anticipated fiasco, the opera has enjoyed a steady series of triumphs to this day. It is a story of pure and betrayed love, of death and anticipation. In Butterfly music is the absolute protagonist, it elicits total emotional participation using the orchestra and the signing to create masks that come alive with oriental colours. Ferzan Özpetek is the director of this recent and critically acclaimed production of Teatro San Carlo. He has set the narrative in the years following the nuclear disaster of Nakasaki, keeping however great respect towards Puccini's original storyline. He only takes the liberty to insert a film fragment during the humming chorus, as a recognizable signature, which also appears in his Traviata.