MET 2019/2020 - Puccini: Madama Butterfly
Opera Broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera, revival, 192 min, 2019
in Italian, with English and Hungarian subtitles
Director: Anthony Minghella
Conductor: Pier Giorgio Morandi, Set Designer: Michael Levine, Costume Designer: Han Feng, Lighting Designer: Peter Mumford, Choreographer: Carolyn Choa
Cast: Hui He (Cio-Cio-San), Elizabeth DeShong (Suzuki), Andrea Carè (Pinkerton), Plácido Domingo (Sharpless)
The title character of Madama Butterfly—a young Japanese geisha who clings to the belief that her arrangement with a visiting American naval officer is a loving and permanent marriage—is one of the defining roles in opera. The story triggers ideas about cultural and sexual imperialism for people far removed from the opera house, and film, Broadway, and popular culture in general have riffed endlessly on it. The lyric beauty of Puccini’s score, especially the music for the thoroughly believable lead role, has made Butterfly timeless.
Hui Hestars as Cio-Cio-San, the devoted geishawho gives everything for the American naval officer Pinkerton, sung by Andrea Carè. Elizabeth DeShongis herdevoted companion Suzuki,and Plácido Domingo adds another role to his remarkable repertoire, singing Sharpless for the first time. Pier Giorgio Morandi conducts Anthony Minghella’s beautiful, atmospheric production.
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