Madama
Butterfly

Giacomo Puccini

Performances

Japanese tragedy in three acts
Libretto: Giuseppe Giacosa, Luigi Illica
World premiere: 17 February 1904, Regio Teatro alla Scala, Milan
Polish premiere: 3 December 1908, Teatr Wielki, Warsaw
Premiere of this production: 29 May 1999, Polish National Opera, Teatr Wielki, Warsaw
In the original Italian with Polish surtitles 

‘It’s easy to stage a revolution when you know nothing,’ says Mariusz Treliński, now the respected winner of an ‘operatic Oscar’, recalling his proper opera debut and acknowledging the impact he had on the transformation of contemporary opera language. He transitioned from film equipped with cinematic narration and raised his hand on opera, which he considered ‘pretentious, bourgeois, irritating, and pandering to poor tastes’. Although Treliński claims that he was ignorant about opera as a young director, that was not really the case: his first film, Farewell to Autumn, based on Witkiewicz’s novel and matching the original’s quality, dazzled with the operatic scale of staging, set design, and the dandy way it flirted with the artificiality of its constraints on which music theatre thrives. Any accusations of Treliński’s musical ignorance are also hugely exaggerated, considering that he illustrated homoerotic antics of the film’s protagonists with Nemorino’s aria from Donizetti’s L'elisir d'amore. That’s enough to suspect that Ciociosan meant for him more than the supermarket brand of Bulgarian vermouth. Setting out to stage the Puccini classic together with set designer Boris Kudlička, Treliński strived for minimalism and stripping Madame Butterfly of its Japanese-style kitsch. Thus, paradoxically, lying at the origins of the greatest Polish opera career of this century was the desire to bring the means of operatic expression to a bare minimum. It is a great, canonic production. The first choice for opera beginners and a favourite with advanced opera lovers.

The USS Abraham Lincoln docks in Nagasaki, and Officer Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton shows a great deal of interest in local culture, with a young Japanese girl as his guide. The fifteen-year-old geisha he meets goes to his head like a drink – his intoxication, however, proves quite fleeting. Her name is Cio-Cio-san (named not after the vermouth, but rather the eponymous Butterfly). After a fake wedding with the belle and a consummation of their relationship, Franklin from Lincoln fends his mistress off with a promise of his return once robins nest again. Robins take their sweet time to nest, and the beau returns to Japan with an American wife in tow. In the meantime, the geisha bore the fruit of her unrequited love. Once Cio-Cio-san realizes who the American lady is, she stabs herself to death with a dagger. Her son is to be taken to America. Through staging perfection, visual wisdom and pure beauty (let us not be afraid of this word) the entire production exudes – Mariusz Treliński brings to opera what Federico Fellini has brought to film, namely the absolute best. It would be a shame to miss it!

Cast

2023-05-26 | 19:00

Credits

Chorus and Orchestra of the Polish National Opera
Mime artists

Synopsis

  • Act I

    An American naval ship has stopped for an extended period in a Japanese port. Pinkerton, a young lieutenant, is finding his monotonous life hard to bear; to brighten up his life he uses the services of Goro, a Japanese matchmaker who – for a fee – introduces him to the young geisha Cio-Cio-San, also known as Butterfly. According to Japanese custom, Pinkerton is to marry her and the marriage is to be valid for 999 years. Goro takes the lieutenant to a rented house on a hill above the city and introduces his future wife's servants. The wedding ceremony approaches – the first guest to arrive is the American consul in Nagasaki, Sharpless. He takes the matter of Pinkerton's marriage more seriously than the young lieutenant and warns him not to destroy the life of the young Japanese girl who truly loves him.

    Cio-Cio-San arrives with her family and a large group of Japanese girls. She tells Pinkerton that she went to see the missionaries that morning to convert to the Christian faith, and that for him she is prepared to break all ties to her family and her environment. The registrar reads out the marriage certificate. The festive wedding atmosphere is disturbed by the sudden arrival of the bride's uncle, the Bonze, who has discovered the secret of her baptism and curses her for abandoning the faith of her fathers and marrying a foreigner. He leaves Pinkerton's house, and the terrified wedding guests hurriedly follow. Butterfly and Pinkerton are left alone. Night falls. Act one ends with a magnificent love duet, one of the most beautiful in world opera ('Bimba deli occhi').

  • Act II

    Three years have passed since Pinkerton's wedding. Every spring Butterfly and her little son await her husband, who left soon after the wedding, promising he would certainly return. They live in poverty, and Butterfly's faithful maid Suzuki is afraid they will grow even poorer because she has no hope Pinkerton will return. Butterfly, on the other hand, unswervingly believes he will keep his word. Sharpless the consul appears unexpectedly and is greeted joyfully by Butterfly. During his visit, the wealthy prince Yamadori also arrives. Goro the matchmaker is helping him woo Cio-Cio- San, but the young woman keeps rejecting the prince. She still considers herself to be Pinkerton's wife and refuses to accept Japanese divorce customs. She doesn't change her mind even when Sharpless tries diplomatically to tell her that Pinkerton has no intention of coming back to her. Cio-Cio-San doesn't believe the consul (the aria 'Un bel di vedremo' – 'One fine day'). She shows him her little boy and asks him to tell Pinkerton that she and the child are still waiting for him. Embarrassed by his sad mission, Sharpless leaves Butterfly's house; a while later she chases away the importunate Goro.

    A cannon shot announces Pinkerton's ship. Together with Suzuki the elated Butterfly decorates the entire house with flowers (the duet 'Scuoti quelle fronda') and, in her wedding dress, awaits her husband's arrival. Dusk falls; the singing of returning fishermen can be heard in the distance. No one appears on the path leading to Butterfly's house...

  • Act III

    The night has passed. Exhausted from waiting, Butterfly has fallen asleep. It's only now that Sharpless and Pinker- ton appear in the garden in front of the house. Suzuki is astonished to see an unfamiliar elegant lady accompanying them. It is Pinkerton's wife, who has come with her husband to take away his son. Arriving moments later, Cio-Cio-San immediately guesses the truth and knows what she must do. She dismisses everyone and takes the old ance- stral knife on which are inscribed the words 'Who cannot live with honour must die with honour'. Having bid her child farewell, Cio-Cio-San stabs herself with the knife. In a final moment of consciousness, she turns towards Pinkerton as he rushes into the room crying 'Butterfly!'.

Sponsors

  • Partnerzy Akademii Operowej

  • Partnerzy Teatru Wielkiego - Opery Narodowej

  • Partner technologiczny

  • Patroni medialni

  • Partners of the Opera Academy

  • Partners of Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera

  • Technological partner

  • Media patrons