Opera Australia presents Madama Butterfly

Fluttering beauty, caught and pinned for his pleasure, bound, yet beautiful still.

Constrained, cocooned, caught in a moment of desire, Butterfly is incandescent. In her exotic embrace, Pinkerton finds paradise, then carelessly condemns his bride to purgatory.

Graeme Murphy’s arresting production of Madama Butterfly takes a contemporary look at Puccini’s alluring heroine using a towering digital set.

Fragments of film flutter across the stage, creating a dynamic backdrop for Murphy’s vision of Butterfly. He draws on his roots in choreography to capture the grace and gravity of a story that begins in rapturous love and ends in the cruellest heartbreak.

Puccini’s sublime music imbues this ageless story with impossible beauty, from the irrepressible famous aria ‘One fine day’ to the intense finale.

South Korean soprano Sae Kyung Rim’s voice is in demand the world over and her Butterfly is richly nuanced. Coached by none other than Luciano Pavarotti, Italian tenor Ivan Magrì gives Pinkerton complexity and depth through his exemplary technique and timbre. His compatriot Carlo Montanaro conducts.

Conductor: Carlo Montanaro

Director: Graeme Murphy AO

Creative Associate: Janet Vernon AM

Revival Director: Shane Placentino

Cast:

CIO-CIO-SAN: Sae Kyung Rim

SUZUKI: Chanyang Choi

PINKERTON: Ivan Magrì

SHARPLESS: Michael Honeyman (until Jul 13), Luke Gabbedy (from Jul 16)

GORO: Virgilio Marino

YAMADORI: Kiran Rajasingam

KATE PINKERTON: Jane Ede

COMMISSIONER: Alexander Hargreaves

REGISTRAR: Gregory Brown

Opera Australia Chorus

Opera Australia Orchestra