Press Office05/07/2017
MADAMA BUTTERFLY
Giacomo Puccini
Arena di Verona
8 (first night), 13, 22, 29 July 2017 - 9:00 pm
11, 19 August 2017 - 8:45 pm
On Saturday 8th July at 9:00 pm, Madama Butterfly, a Japanese tragedy in three acts to music by Giacomo Puccini and with libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, returns to the Arena di Verona stage.The opera will be staged in the production with Franco Zeffirelli as director and scenographer, embellished buy the costumes of Academy Award winning designer Emi Wada and choreography by Maria Grazia Garofoli.
On the podium for the six performances, Jader Bignamini.
Further performances:13, 22, 29 July 20179:00 pm – 11, 19 August 20178:45 pm
Giacomo Puccini began composing Madama Butterfly in 1901, however, due to numerous interruptions, the score was only completed in 1903. Puccini chose the subject after having attended a performance in June 1900 of the tragedy Madame Butterfly by David Belasco, which in turn was based on a short story by American John Luther Long entitled Madam Butterfly, published in 1898.
Puccini gathered information meticulously for the realization of the drama, assisted by well-known Japanese actress Sada Yacco, who accurately described the usages and costumes of the oriental people to him.The Lucca composer therefore outlined an extremely modern psychological drama, which follows the leading character’s interior story, against the backdrop of a postcard-style Japan.Such introspective depth was however strange to audiences of the early 1900s, to the point that the Première at Teatro alla Scala on the 17th February 1904 turned out to be a colossal fiasco, as one of Puccini’s sisters wrote in a letter to her husband: ”We have reached the bottom, I don’t know how.I didn’t hear the second act at all and, before the opera finished, we fled from the theatre.”Just three months later, at Brescia’s Teatro Grande, the opera obtained well-deserved recognition, which it still enjoys to this day.
The Puccini opera, staged at Arena di Verona since 1978 in six different editions with 71 performances, is proposed in the spectacular 2004 production – staged again in 2006, 2010 and 2014 – withFranco Zeffirelli as director and scenographer, costumes by Emi Wada and choreography by Maria Grazia Garofoli.
The protagonists for the 2017 Festival, conducted by Jader Bignamini, are Oksana Dyka (8, 13, 22/7), Sae-Kyung Rim (29/7) and Hui He (11, 19/8) in the leading role of Cio-Cio-San, while Marcello Giordani (8, 13, 22/7) and Gianluca Terranova (29/7 – 11, 19/8) interpret F.B.Pinkerton; Silvia Beltrami (8, 13, 22/7) and Anna Malavasi (29/7 – 11, 19/9) perform the role of the servant Suzuki, and Alessandro Corbelli (8, 13/7), Stefano Antonucci (22, 29/7 – 11/8) and Alberto Gazale (19/8) alternate as consul Sharpless.Kate Pinkerton is interpreted by Alice Marini, Goro by Francesco Pittari, Prince Yamadori by Nicolò Ceriani and Cio-Cio-San’s Bonze uncle by Deyan Vatchkov.The cast is completed by The Imperial Commissioner, performed by Marco Camastra, the Official Registrar by Dario Giorgelè, Cio-Cio-San’s Mother by Tamta Tarieli and HerCousin byMarina Ogii (8, 13, 22/7) and Elena Borin (29/7 - 11, 19/8).
The opera features the Orchestra, the Chorus (under the direction of chorus master Vito Lombardi), the Dance Company coordinated by Gaetano Petrosino and the Technicians of the Arena di Verona, as well as numerous extras.
Info
Fondazione Arena di Verona Press Office – Via Roma 7/D, 37121 Verona
tel.(+39) 045 805.1861-1905-1891-1939 - fax (+39) 045 803.1443
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Prices:from € 19.00 to € 204.00
OUR THANKS GO TO THE SUPPORTERS OF THE 2017 ARENA DI VERONA OPERA FESTIVAL
Thanks go to all the supporters of the 2017 Arena di Verona Opera Festival, in particular to UniCredit, leading European banking group, Major Partner of the Opera Festival for over twenty years, Special PartnerAGSM, Official Sponsors Intimissimi and Veronafiere, Automotive Partner Volkswagen Group Italia, Mobility Partner DB Bahn Italia and Media PartnerRadio Monte Carlo.