Madam Butterfly

Synopsis

An American naval officer (Pinkerton) 'acquires' a 15 year old Geisha wife during a stay in Japan - but has no intention of staying with her. After a while he returns to the USA and marries his fiancee. Meanwhile, Butterfly waits for him for three years, cut off from her family, religion and culture by being an American wife. And she is now a mother. When he finally returns she is overjoyed, but he brings with him his new wife. Story originally published in a magazine.

Our Review:

12 June 2009

Three revivals in and not yet four years old, the late Anthony Minghella’s visually ravishing Butterfly has already established itself as an ENO staple. It’s an Olivier Award winner and a copper-bottomed crowd pleaser – a repertoire favourite re-thought and recreated with a sure eye for beauty, sweep and majesty. And puppets. But that’s another matter.

This staging fully earns its gasps of delight and admiration. Every image is poetic, every idea is thrilling, and at every turn it encourages the spectator to reassess this over-familiar opera. If that reassessment is not always to the production’s advantage, it is because Minghella (whose work is meticulously revived here by his wife and choreographer, Carolyn Choa) eschews Puccini’s Verismo in favour of an ultra-stylised hymn to Japanese art. The result is a setting of ice-cold magnificence that neuters this febrile masterpiece, contradicting the music’s ardour.

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Latest User Review

Holly - 8 May 2012:

Incredible, moving and so beautiful in every way. Don't miss out on this production, it will stay with you forever...

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