‘If I am not moved, if the libretto does not touch my heart…then it’s not for me.’ Puccini knew what he was looking for in an opera libretto…and the fact that the story of a delicate Japanese ‘butterfly’ moved him deeply is apparent in every note of the score. The young geisha Cio-Cio-San has been waiting for years for the return of her American ‘husband’, the naval officer Pinkerton. When she finally grasps the truth, her fate is sealed and she takes the action that her code of honor imposes.
Madama Butterfly marked a new phase in Puccini’s development, in which he enriched his musical palette with the exoticism of the Far East. His direct emotionality contains a universal dimension, which is why the work remains popular worldwide. De Munt Brussel, Hotel Pro Forma and Ulrike Quade Company bring East and West together in a theatrical ritual for our time. Kazushi Ono conducts this work for the first time.
