Opera Premiere: Madama Butterfly

On the evening of Friday, September 26 at 21:00, Stingray Classica premieres director Giovanna Spinelli’s recent staging of Giacomo Puccini’s tragic opera Madama Butterfly (1904). The story revolves around Cio-Cio-San, the young Japanese geisha ‘Butterfly’ who marries the visiting American officer Pinkerton. Faithfully awaiting his return, she cannot accept that Pinkerton has abandoned her. Stage director Giovanna Spinelli’s 2021 production sets the story 35 years after the events of Puccini's original opera. It opens in a hospital room where an ailing Pinkerton, consumed by remorse, lies on his deathbed. Watched over by his American wife, Kate, and their son, Dolore, Pinkerton reveals the long-held secret of his son's true origins and his birth mother. As he recounts the past, the room comes alive with its ghosts, presenting the story across two timelines at once. By shifting the narrative perspective, Spinelli delivers a gripping and moving new interpretation of this classic work. Conductor Beatrice Venezi leads the Orchestre national de Metz Grand Est and the Choeur de l'Opéra-Théâtre de Metz Métropole, with a cast of soloists including Francesca Tiburzi, Thomas Bettinger, Vikena Kamenica, Jean-Luc Ballestra, Daegweon Choi, and Aurore Weiss. Following the Stingray Classica premiere on Friday, September 26 at 21:00, this broadcast is repeated on Sunday, September 28 at 14:00.