Madame Butterfly: Puccini's work at Opéra Bastille for the new season

Attentionopera lovers... TheOpéra Bastille will be staging several performances of Madame Butterfly, Giacomo Puccini's major work, from September 14 to October 25, 2024. A tragedy in two acts, sometimes divided into three, set in the Land of the Rising Sun at the beginning of the 20th century, it brings together two worlds where everything is at odds.

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First, that of Cio-Cio san (Madame Butterfly in English), a 15-year-old geisha who takes marriage very seriously and remains faithful to her traditions, but also that of Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton, an American soldier who falls in love with the young woman, rents a traditional house and marries her for fun. Like Romeo and Juliet, these two worlds end in the death of one of them, in this case Madame Butterfly, who, learning that Pinkerton has married another woman while she's away, kills herself by Jigai, a ritual suicide reserved for women (equivalent to seppuku).

Trailer for Madame Butterfly at the Opéra Bastille :

The opera is partly inspired by Pierre Loti's Madame Chrysanthème, which tells approximately the same story, namely that of a young French naval officer who goes to Japan and marries a Japanese woman, Kiku-san (Madame Chrysanthème), in Nagazaki. Unlike Pierre Loti's work, which is based on his own experience, Giacomo Puccini's inspiration here comes from"popular melodies and the sounds of Japanese voices". Shall we get our tickets?