SAN DIEGO – San Diego Opera is presenting Puccini’s Madama Butterfly as the second mainstage offering of its 2015-2016 season when it opens on Saturday, April 16, 2016 at 7 PM for four performances at the San Diego Civic Theatre. Returning to San Diego Opera in the title role, is American soprano Latonia Moore, who dazzled audiences in 2013 as Aida, and audiences at the Metropolitan Opera earlier this month when she sang her first American Butterfly. The Company is excited to welcome Romanian tenor Teodor Ilincăi as Pinkerton, a role he has sung the role to critical and popular acclaim in Vienna, Paris, Budapest, Toulouse, and Hamburg, in his American debut. Also making an important Company debuts are American mezzo soprano J’nai Bridges as Suzuki and American baritone Anthony Clark Evans as Sharpless. Taiwanese-American tenor Joseph Hu returns as Goro and American bass-baritone Scott Sikon returns as the Bonze. Franco-Canadian conductor Yves Abel, last heard leading the orchestra in 2014’s Pagliacci, returns to lead the San Diego Symphony for these performances. American stage director Garnett Bruce will stage the production.
In Puccini’s tragic opera Madama Butterfly, the American naval officer Pinkerton marries a Japanese geisha named Cio-Cio-San (who is also known as Butterfly). Pinkerton takes the relationship lightly despite the warnings of the American consul, Sharpless. Pinkerton returns to America, and Butterfly gives birth to their child whom she names Trouble while she waits for her husband to return. When Pinkerton does return he brings with him his American wife and Cio-Cio-San must choose to live in disgrace or die with her honor intact. With the famous aria “Un bel dì” and the haunting “Humming Chorus” Madama Butterfly is full of beautiful music that will stay with the audience long after they have left the theatre.
This production of Madama Butterfly is rented from Opéra de Montréal and is new to San Diego Opera audiences. The set designer is Robert Oswald and the costume designer is Aníbal Lápiz. Chris Rynne is the lighting designer. The opera will be performed in Italian with English translations above the stage. This is the ninth time Madama Butterfly has been performed by the Company with performances in 2009, 2003, 1998, 1993, 1989, 1982, 1978 and 1971.
Madama Butterfly will have a radio broadcast on Saturday, April 23, 2016 at 8 PM on KPBS radio, 89.5 FM (97.7 FM Calexico) and online at www.kpbs.org
