Madama Butterfly
Saturday 13 July 2024 Opéra

MADAMA BUTTERFLY BY PUCCINI

CONDUCTOR DANIELE RUSTIONI — STAGE DIRECTOR ANDREA BRETH
  • Recording Date 13 July 2024
  • Languages Sung in Italian with French, English, Spanish, Polish and Italian subtitles
  • Realisation Philippe Béziat
  • Co-production ARTE France, Camera Lucida
  • Video available for replay until Sunday 13 July 2025
  • Photo © Ruth Walz

BROADCASTED ON

JAPANESE TRAGEDY IN THREE ACTS
LIBRETTO BY LUIGI ILLICA AND GIUSEPPE GIACOSA, BASED ON THE PLAY MADAME BUTTERFLY, A TRAGEDY OF JAPAN BY DAVID BELASCO (1900) ADAPTED FROM THE NOVEL MLLE CHERRY BLOSSOM OF TOKYO BY JOHN LUTHER LONG (1895)
PREMIERED ON 17 FEBRUARY 1904 AT LA SCALA, MILAN. REVISED VERSION PUBLISHED IN 1907

NEW PRODUCTION OF FESTIVAL D’AIX-EN-PROVENCE
A COPRODUCTION WITH OPÉRA NATIONAL DE LYON, KOMISCHE OPER BERLIN, THÉÂTRES DE LA VILLE DE LUXEMBOURG

GRANDE DONATRICE D’EXCEPTION DU FESTIVAL D’AIX-EN-PROVENCE

Conductor
Daniele Rustioni
Stage director
Andrea Breth
Set design
Raimund Orfeo Voigt
Costume design
Ursula Renzenbrink
Lighting design
Alexander Koppelmann
Dramaturgy
Klaus Bertisch
Conductor's assistant and language coach
Alessandro Poleggi
Vocal coaches
Alfredo Abbati, Yulia Luisi-Levin
Movements Collaborator
Tomoya Kawamura
Artistic collaboration to the stage direction
Marcin Lakomicki, Eva Di Domenico
Staging assistant
Heide Stock
Costume assistant
Nathalie Pallandre
Lighting assistant
Cécile Giovansili Vissière
Cio-Cio-San
Ermonela Jaho
B. F. Pinkerton
Adam Smith
Suzuki
Mihoko Fujimura
Sharpless
Lionel Lhote
Goro
Carlo Bosi
Lo zio Bonzo
Inho Jeong
Il principe Yamadori
Kristofer Lundin*
Kate Pinkerton
Albane Carrère*
Il commissario imperiale
Kristján Jóhannesson
Lo zio Yakusidé
Alexander de Jong
L’ufficiale del registro
Hugo Santos
La madre di Cio-Cio-San
Karine Motyka
La zia
Sharona Applebaum
La cugina
Marie-Eve Gouin
Actors
Jun Azuma, Megumi Eda, Natsuki Katori, Takeo Ismaera Ishii, Tomoya Kawamura, Atsushi Takahashi, Aya Yasuda
Choir coach
Benedict Kearns
Choir and Orchestra
Opéra de Lyon
*Former artists of the Académie

After Tosca (2019), which marked Puccini’s entry into its repertoire, the Festival celebrates the centenary of the composer’s death this year by putting on his ‘Japanese tragedy’ Madame Butterfly: the cruel story of a vulnerable but strong and wilful heroine, driven by her blind perseverance to ritual suicide. By enveloping her with a bright lyricism and a supremely refined orchestration, Puccini reaches the heart of his artistic identity – reminding us of the real pleasure of tears. We have here a truth far from all verismo, according to Andrea Breth who suggests that everything in this work is a matter of perception and artifice: the relationship between the other singers and Butterfly, between Puccini together with his librettists and Japan, and between audiences and the opera. Conducting the orchestra of the Opéra de Lyon, Daniele Rustioni offers the finest of backdrops to Ermonela Jaho, whose rare combination of force and delicacy has made her a go-to choice in this wonderful yet harrowing role, in which she is making her prized debut in Aix.

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