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The Sunday Opera: Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" from the Aix-en-Provence Festival

It’s off to the Aix-en-Provence Festival for this week’s Sunday Opera (10/20 3:00 p.m.) and their production of “Madama Butterfly.” 

It’s off to the Aix-en-Provence Festival for this week’s Sunday Opera (10/20 3:00 p.m.) and their production of “Madama Butterfly.” 

Puccini’s tragedy is possibly one of the best-known works as it’s been consistently performed around the world since its premier and has even been seen well over 900 times at the Met. 

American Naval officer B.F. Pinkerton (Adam Smith) is stationed in Japan, and there, he takes a Japanese wife, Cio-Cio-san (Butterfly) (Ermonela Jaho) as is the custom. He doesn’t take the marriage seriously, but Butterfly does. He leaves Japan, no knowing that Butterfly is pregnant with his son. Butterfly waits nearly three years for his return with her faithful servant, Suzuki (Mihoko Fujimura), but when Pinkerton returns, he does so with his American wife, Kate (Albane Carrere). Butterfly realizes that she has truly been abandoned by Pinkerton and is shunned by the Japanese people, so she kills herself so that her son can go with Pinkerton to a hopefully better life. 

The cast also includes Lionel Lhote as Sharpless, Carlo Bosi as Goro, Inho Jeong as The Bonze, and Kristofer Lundin and Prince Yamadori. They’re joined by the Lyon Opera Orchestra and Chorus, and our conductor is Daniele Rustioni. 

To try to lighten the afternoon, we’ve decided to close our time with you with a stellar cast presenting the music from Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Mikado.” This excellent 1950 recording features some D’Oyly Carte Opera Company veterans like Martyn Smith as Ko-Ko, Richard Watson as Pooh-Bahi, Leonard Osborn as Nanki-Poo, Joan Gillingham as Yum-Yum, and Ella Hallman as Katisha along with several others. 

They are joined by the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company with the New Promenade Orchestra conducted by the legendary Isodore Godfrey.

Join us for a bit of fun for your afternoon’s listening this Sunday.

Michael is program host and host of the WWFM Sunday Opera, Sundays at 3 pm, and co-host of The Dress Circle, Sundays at 7 pm.
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