Madama Butterfly

Olga Busuioc (Cio-Cio San), Joshua Guerrero (Pinkerton), Michael Sumuel (Sharpless), Carlo Bosi (Goro), Elizabeth DeShong (Suzuki) & The Glyndebourne Chorus, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Omer Meir Wellber, Annilese Miskimmon

East meets West with devastating consequences in Puccini’s tragic romance.

When an innocent young Geisha [Olga Busoic] meets and American naval officer, she falls instantly and deeply in love. Giving up her family and her faith, she risks all in marriage to the dashing Lieutenant Pinkerton [Joshua Guerrero] - but her fragile happiness cannot last. Soon love turns to abandonment and betrayal, and Butterfly is forced to make one final, agonising sacrifice. Bursting with exotic colour and memorable melodies, Puccini’s seductive score conceals a dramatic blade that cuts to the heart.

Compressing ‘great grief into small souls’, as the composer himself described it, Madama Butterfly is a classic love story that never fails to move, a tragic romance that sweeps you along in the intensity of its action. Blending authentic Japanese music with luscious European harmonies and orchestration, the opera is an irresistible fusion of East and West.

Puccini’s opera makes its Festival debut in Annilese Miskimmon’s thought-provoking production that updates the original turn-of-thecentury setting to the 1950s, confronting the darker political and emotional currents of a work that acknowledges that there are some barriers too great for even love to conquer.

Puccini:
 Madama Butterfly