{"id":53851,"date":"2022-11-22T16:53:57","date_gmt":"2022-11-22T14:53:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=53851"},"modified":"2022-11-22T16:53:57","modified_gmt":"2022-11-22T14:53:57","slug":"israeli-opera-madama-butterfly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=53851","title":{"rendered":"Israeli Opera: Madama Butterfly"},"content":{"rendered":"

The tragic tale of Cio-Cio-San \u2013 Madama Butterfly<\/em> \u2013 will be performed at the Israeli Opera from December 2 \u2013 12, 2022, in a striking production directed by Mariusz Treli\u0144ski, and conducted by Dan Ettinger.<\/p>\n

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Madama Butterfly\/Photo: Yossi Zwecker<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Giacomo Puccini was inspired to create the opera after seeing David Belasco\u2019s one-act play Madame Butterfly: A Tragedy of Japan<\/em> in London in 1900. Following the opening of Japan to foreign trade, there was a fascination in Europe with Japanese art and culture that influenced many artists of the time, such as Van Gogh, Degas, and Whistler. Geisha dramas were popular, reflecting the way in which Western culture of the time objectified Japanese culture, even whilst learning from its traditions and artistry. Belasco\u2019s play was based on the short story Madame Butterfly<\/em> (1898) by John Luther Long, who had written it after hearing the stories of his sister Jennie Correll, who had spent time in Japan with her husband, a Methodist missionary.\u00a0 In addition to relying on these works, Puccini\u2019s collaborators, Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica (La boh\u00e8me<\/em>, Tosca<\/em>) researched Japanese culture and customs for the libretto, while Puccini looked to Japanese music, incorporating Japanese folk songs and instruments such as tam tam and bells into the score. These stand in contrast to the Western music, emphasizing the divide between the cultures, Puccini even quotes The Star-Spangled Banner<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Cio-Cio-San\u2019s tale is a sad one, the 15-year-old is forced to become a geisha when her wealthy family loses its money. However, when she is married to the American Naval Officer, Lieutenant Pinkerton, she comes to the marriage with hope and love. She even converts to Christianity, to be more at one with her new husband, even though it distances her from her family and community. Unbeknownst to her, she came as part of a deal: Pinkerton has signed a lease on a house that came with a wife, and with the understanding that he can terminate the lease at any time. When Pinkerton eventually leaves on assignment, she is certain that he will return to her. Alone in Nagasaki with her servant Suzuki, Cio-Cio-San falls on hard times, but she remains naively faithful and hopeful. In Pinkerton\u2019s absence she has given birth to their son, and she is certain that Pinkerton will return to them, even though three years have passed without a word from him. Pinkerton does return to Japan, but with him is his American wife, and they wish to take the child with them. Cio-Cio-San, devastated, agrees, and uses her father\u2019s dagger to kill herself.<\/p>\n

Written at a time when the West objectified the East, and the tale of a woman sacrificing all for the sake of love would be considered romantic, as one listens to the breath-taking music of the opera today, it acquires new meaning and relevance. Directed by Mariusz Treli\u0144ski, with spectacular set design by Boris Kudlika, Madama Butterfly will be conducted by Dan Ettinger. Soloists in the opera: Aurelia Florian and Alla Vasilevitsky will alternate as Cio-Cio-San, Valentin Dityuk and Otar Jorjikia alternate as Pinkerton, Ionut Pascu and Oded Reich alternate as Sharpless, the American Consul; Shay Bloch is Suzuki.<\/p>\n

Tickets and additional information may be found on the Israeli Opera\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The tragic tale of Cio-Cio-San \u2013 Madama Butterfly \u2013 will be performed at the Israeli Opera from December 2 \u2013 12, 2022, in a striking production directed by Mariusz Treli\u0144ski, and conducted by Dan Ettinger. Giacomo Puccini was inspired to create the opera after seeing David Belasco\u2019s one-act play Madame Butterfly: A Tragedy of Japan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":53853,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","category-theater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/53853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}