Madama Butterfly

An opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini

Libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa

Recording Date: Summer 2018

Place: Glyndebourne

Lewes, United Kingdom

Sung in Italian with English subtitles

Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly

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This production of Madama Butterfly was the first ever to be shown at the Glyndebourne Festival when it premiered in 2016. Stage director Annelise Miskimmon updates Puccini's masterpiece to the early 1950s, with Pinkerton depicted as a serviceman with the U.S. occupying forces and the title character as his GI bride. Many war brides at this time did in fact make exciting new lives abroad with their strapping Western husbands, yet Butterfly is still callously abandoned by the father of her child. The postwar setting therefore lends a gritty edge to this tragic story, which becomes 'painfully realistic, making its emotional impact all the stronger' (The Telegraph).

As the young geisha who defies her family and sheds her identity for love, Olga Busuioc gives a compelling performance which shows all the complicated facets and feelings of the strong-minded title character. Joshua Guerrero portrays Pinkerton 'to a tee' (Seen & Heard International), while Elizabeth DeShong sings the role of Suzuki with a 'voice of superb authority' (The Telegraph). Omer Meir Wellber’s conducting has a 'tremendous, slow-burning intensity that draws us relentlessly into the opera’s unsettling world' (The Guardian).

This performance was filmed at the Glyndebourne Summer Festival in June 2018 by François Roussillon, one of the most brilliant film producers and directors working in opera today.

With the support of the Centre National du Cinéma et de l’image animée