Zurich Opera House tickets 22 December 2024 - Madama Butterfly | GoComGo.com

Madama Butterfly

Zurich Opera House, Zurich, Switzerland
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Important Info
Type: Opera
City: Zurich, Switzerland
Starts at: 13:00
Acts: 2
Intervals: 1
Duration: 2h 50min
Sung in: Italian
Titles in: German,English
Cast
Performers
Conductor: Marco Armiliato
Soprano: Marina Rebeka (Cio-Cio-san (Madama Butterfly))
Mezzo-Soprano: Judith Schmid (Suzuki)
Baritone: Massimo Cavalletti (Sharpless)
Orchestra: Philharmonia Zürich
Tenor: Tomislav Mužek (B.F. Pinkerton)
Choir: Zürich Opera Chorus
Creators
Composer: Giacomo Puccini
Librettist: Giuseppe Giacosa
Author: John Luther Long
Librettist: Luigi Illica
Director: Ted Huffman
Overview

American stage director Ted Huffman’s directorial debut at the Opernhaus Zürich was a hit with its overwhelmingly beautiful, serenely abstract images and palpable narrative tension.

She most recently impressed Zurich audiences as Leonora in Verdi’s Il trovatore. Now the internationally celebrated soprano Marina Rebeka returns in the title role of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. Giacomo Puccini followed up on the successes of La bohème and Tosca by leaving European soil for this opera, which juxtaposes Western and Eastern mentalities. In what would be his most ambitious score to date, he pulled inspiration from his recent introduction to Japanese culture, juxtaposing them with a raw, Western musical style.

The real conflict in this "Japanese tragedy" lies less in the culture clash, and more in the irreconciled principles of a woman bound by faithful love and an unfaithful, instinct-driven man. Before marrying the 15-year-old geisha Cio-Cio-San, naval officer Pinkerton raises a glass of whisky to the day when he is "properly" married to an American woman. The tryst with the attractive Japanese "doll" is no more than an affair during his time abroad. After Pinkerton returns to the United States, Cio-Cio-San waits for his return, in vain. When she learns that he has remarried in his home country and is coming back to take their child to live with him, she sees only one path forward...

History
Premiere of this production: 17 February 1904, La Scala, Milan

Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts (originally two) by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It is based on the short story "Madame Butterfly" (1898) by John Luther Long, which in turn was based on stories told to Long by his sister Jennie Correll and on the semi-autobiographical 1887 French novel Madame Chrysanthème by Pierre Loti. Long's version was dramatized by David Belasco as the one-act play Madame Butterfly: A Tragedy of Japan, which, after premiering in New York in 1900, moved to London, where Puccini saw it in the summer of that year.

Venue Info

Zurich Opera House - Zurich
Location   Sechseläutenplatz 1

Zürich Opera House is a main opera house in Zürich and Switzerland. Located at the Sechseläutenplatz, it has been the home of the Zürich Opera since 1891, and also houses the Bernhard-Theater Zürich. It is also home to the Zürich Ballet. The Opera House also holds concerts by its Philharmonia orchestra, matinees, Lieder evenings and events for children. The Zürich Opera Ball is organised every year in March, and is usually attended by prominent names.

The first permanent theatre, the Aktientheater, was built in 1834 and it became the focus of Richard Wagner’s activities during his period of exile from Germany.

The Aktientheater burnt down in 1890. The new Stadttheater Zürich (municipal theatre) was built by the Viennese architects Fellner & Helmer, who changed their previous design for the theatre in Wiesbaden only slightly. It was opened in 1891. It was the city's main performance space for drama, opera, and musical events until 1925, when it was renamed Opernhaus Zürich and a separate theatre for plays was built: The Bernhard Theater opened in 1941, in May 1981 the Esplanada building was demolished, and the present adjoint building opened on 27/28 December 1984 after three years of transition in the Kaufhaus building nearby Schanzengraben.

By the 1970s, the opera house was badly in need of major renovations; when some considered it not worth restoring, a new theatre was proposed for the site. However, between 1982 and 1984, rebuilding took place but not without huge local opposition which was expressed in street riots. The rebuilt theatre was inaugurated with Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and the world première of Rudolf Kelterborn’s Chekhov opera Der Kirschgarten.

As restored, the theatre is an ornate building with a neo-classical façade of white and grey stone adorned with busts of Weber, Wagner, and Mozart. Additionally, busts of Schiller, Shakespeare, and Goethe are to be found. The auditorium is built in the neo-rococo style and seats approximately 1200 people. During the refurbishment, the issue of sightlines was not adequately addressed. As a result, the theatre has a high number of seats with a limited view, or no view, of the stage. This is unusual in international comparison, where sightlines in historic opera houses have been typically enhanced over time.

Corporate archives and historical library collections are held at the music department of the Predigerkirche Zürich.

The Zürich Opera House is also home of the International Opera Studio (in German: Internationales Opernstudio IOS) which is a educational program for young singers and pianists. The studio was created in 1961 and has renowned artists currently teaching such as Brigitte Fassbaender, Hedwig Fassbender, Andreas Homocki, Rosemary Joshua, Adrian Kelly, Fabio Luisi, Jetske Mijnssen, Ann Murray, Eytan Pessen or Edith Wiens.

Important Info
Type: Opera
City: Zurich, Switzerland
Starts at: 13:00
Acts: 2
Intervals: 1
Duration: 2h 50min
Sung in: Italian
Titles in: German,English
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