15€ Standard ticket
12€ Cine Albéniz members
Opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini with a libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, based on the drama of the same name by David Belasco
Sung in Italian, with subtitles in Spanish
Recorded at the Teatro Real, Madrid, 2017
Production Teatro Real
Ermonela Jaho Madama Butterfly (Cio-Cio-San)
Enkelejda Shkosa Suzuki
Marifé Nogales Mrs. Kate Pinkerton
Jorge de León B.F. Pinkerton
Àngel Òdena Sharpless
Francisco Vas Goro
Tomeu Bibiloni Prince Yamadori
Fernando Radó The Bonze
Teatro Real Orchestra and Choir
Conductor Marco Armiliato
Stage director Mario Gas
2.25 h (w/intermission)
photo ©Javier del Real
Temporary wives were very common in Japan at the end of the 19th century. In the mid-1800’s, the West, led by the United States, had established diplomatic and commercial relations with the country, and the fascination with the home of the geishas had spread like gunpowder. In this line, the character of Butterfly is a crude embodiment of the conflict between two irreconcilable civilizations, one of which subjugates the other. A man of very fine theatrical instinct, Puccini masterly portrays the fragility of a geisha in love, who naively believes she is reciprocated by a handsome officer of the United States Navy, in a score which evokes conveniently harmonized traditional Japanese melodies. The fiasco of Madame Butterfly’s premiere in Milan did not make the composer desist from his determination to go ahead with what he believed to be his most sincere and expressive work. Time would end up proving him right. Mario Gas places the story on a film set in the 30s and proposes three simultaneous perspectives through which to experience this moving drama: the opera itself, the filming of the opera and its reproduction in black and white on a huge screen.
15€ Standard ticket
12€ Cine Albéniz members
