Yasko Sato
Cio-Cio San
Gianluca Terranova
Lt. Pinkerton
Nina Yoshida Nelsen
Suzuki
Craig Colclough
Sharpless
Julius Ahn
Goro
Leroy Davis
Prince Yamadori
Suchan Kim
The Bonze
Allen Michael Jones
The Imperial Commissioner
Gretchen Krupp
Kate Pinkerton
Jaenam Lee
Yakuside
Carrie Anne Wilson
Cousin
Nicole Lewis
Mother
Tiffany Uzoije
Aunt
Abigail Hale
Sorrow
Timothy Myers
Conductor
Tomer Zvulun
Stage Director
Erhard Rom
Scenic & Projection Designer
Allen Charles Klein
Costume Designer
Robert Wierzel
Lighting Designer
Greg Emetaz
Associate Projection Designer
Kevin Suzuki
Japanese Movement Advisor
Bruno Baker
Assistant Director
Michelle Ladd Williams
Intimacy Director
Composer: Giacomo Puccini
Librettist: Luigi Illica & Giuseppe Giacosa
Premiere Date: February 17, 1904, La Scala, Milan
Cultures collide when an American naval officer stationed in Nagasaki decides to take a Japanese wife. Cio-Cio-San—fifteen years old and in love—dreams of her new life with the handsome young officer. Renouncing her culture and her family to become a proper American wife, she settles into his home overlooking Nagasaki Harbor and waits for his ship to return. Featuring Yasko Sato as Cio-Cio San and Gianluca Terranova as Pinkerton singing one of the most exquisitely beautiful works in the repertoire. Nina Yoshida Nelsen, Julius Ahn, and Allen Michael Jones also join the cast and The Atlanta Opera Orchestra, led by Timothy Myers. Tomer Zvulun directs. This production includes depictions of suicide and child brides (Cio-Cio San is 15 years old).
Sung in Italian with English Supertitles
Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre
Presented in partnership with The Japan American Society of Georgia
Young professionals enjoy a pre-show cocktail hour + ticket to the show
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Teachers with students may attend the final dress rehearsal for FREE
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Students, veterans, and active military with ID may purchase discount tickets two hours in advance at the Cobb Energy Centre
$25 – 35 per seat
One hour before all performances of Madama Butterfly
Learn about the complex narratives underscoring this beloved work and how it is being embraced in a new light. Conducted by artists and opera aficionados, pre-opera talks give you a better understanding of the opera and a boost of energy before the curtain goes up.
FREE with your ticket; seating is general admission.
Community Conversation: Madama Butterfly – A Modern Interpretation
Tuesday, October 25, 2022 at 7pm
Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly is undergoing a fascinating metamorphosis. The work is beloved by many but also faces challenges as it changes to be more inclusive and thoughtful in our modern world. A partnership with the Japan America Society of Georgia, during this Community Conversation artists from The Atlanta Opera production discuss the challenges with Asian and Asian-American stereotypes in the piece and offer food for thought to audience members who may be grappling with these issues for the first time.
Moderator: Jessica Kennett Cork, Vice President, Community Engagement & Corporate Communications at YKK Corporation of America – Chair, Japan-America Society of Georgia
Panelists: Tomer Zvulun, Stage Director – General & Artistic Director, The Atlanta Opera | Yasko Sato, soprano – Cio-Cio-San | Nina Yoshida Nelsen, mezzo-soprano – Suzuki | Julius Ahn, tenor – Goro
More information: https://www.jasgeorgia.org/event-4995194
The Atlanta Opera’s presentation of Madama Butterfly in November 2022 provides an opportunity for discussion and reflection on a beautiful and beloved, but also troubled work of art.
The Atlanta Opera will produce a series of events and community conversations along with partners such as the Japan American Society of Georgia to contextualize and create a safe space for open-eyed exploration of Madama Butterfly. Fundamentally, this is an opera written in the first decade of the 1900’s by a European man, which reaches our modern ears and understanding in a different way.
Our goal is to ensure that audiences and performers of all races and ethnicities have the resources to think critically about the work. Community programming both live and digital will be announced as they are finalized over the summer.
In the meantime, here’s what we’d like you to know:
Behind the Scenes:
We are investing in additional resources for our creative and design teams. These resources—primarily alliance groups or special consultants—help us reexamine and thoughtfully rethink stage movement, choreography, make-up, wigs, costumes, and set design with a heightened sensitivity to their effects on our communities.
Engaging with our Communities:
We are committed to providing multiple ways for our audience and greater-Atlanta to engage thoughtfully with the work and to celebrate Japanese heritage. In October, we will launch a podcast led by noted singer, advocate and Atlanta cast member, Nina Yoshida Nelson, “Metamorphosis.” Our partners at the Japan American Society of Georgia are helping us to connect with and celebrate Japanese culture. Fall community programming will include both artists and local representatives from the AAPI community.
The Boston Lyric Opera’s Butterfly Process is particularly inspirational. Over six months, BLO has critically examined the legacy of Madama Butterfly with inclusive perspectives from leading scholars and performers. Their work has centered the discussion from within the AAPI community. Videos are available now on topics that range from the historical reception of the piece to unpacking Orientalism to the impact of Madama Butterfly on artists and audiences. We cannot recommend it enough.
Suggested Reading:
Final Bow for Yellowface, Phil Chan
Decolonizing Wealth, Edgar Villanueva
The Sum of Us, Heather McGhee
ACT I
At the turn of the century, on the outskirts of the harbor town of Nagasaki, U.S. Navy Lieutenant Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton inspects the house which he has leased and is soon to occupy with his Japanese bride, Cio-Cio-San, known as Madama Butterfly. Goro, the marriage broker, has arranged both the match and the house with a 999-year contract cancelable at a month‘s notice. Presently, Sharpless, the United States Consul arrives, and Pinkerton shares with him his carefree philosophy of a sailor and the beautiful Japanese girl who has captivated him. Sharpless tries to persuade him that there is danger in this convenient arrangement; the girl may not regard her vows so lightly. The Lieutenant laughs at such apprehension and proposes a toast to America and the American girl who will someday be his “real” wife.
The hour for the wedding ceremony approaches. Butterfly, accompanied by her friends, arrives joyously singing of her wedding. She tells Pinkerton that since the death of her father she has had to earn her living as a geisha. Her relatives noisily bustle in, commenting on the bridegroom. In a quiet moment, Cio-Cio-San shows Pinkerton her few earthly treasures and tells him that she has secretly renounced her traditional faith in favor of Christianity. The Imperial Commissioner performs the brief ceremony, and the guests toast the couple when, suddenly Cio-Cio-San‘s uncle, the Bonze, bursts in shouting. A Buddhist priest, he curses her for renouncing her ancestor’s religion. The relatives instantly turn on the young bride. When Pinkerton angrily orders all the guests away, Butterfly is left weeping. Pinkerton consoles her with tender words, and as night falls, the lovers share a moonlit duet.
ACT II
Three years later, with a gaze fixed upon the horizon, Cio-Cio-San patiently awaits her husband’s return. Beside her, Suzuki prays to an image of Buddha, imploring the gods for aid. The money Pinkerton left is now almost gone. Butterfly bids her maid to have faith. One day, Pinkerton’s ship will appear in the harbor and he will again embrace his beloved wife.
Soon Sharpless enters with a letter from the Lieutenant and tries several times unsuccessfully to explain the reason for his visit. The letter tells of Pinkerton’s marriage to an American girl. But before he can break the news to Butterfly, Goro interrupts, bringing with him a noble suitor, the wealthy Prince Yamadori. Cio-Cio-San greets the prince with dignity but firmly refuses his offer of marriage, insisting that her American husband has not deserted her. Sharpless again attempts to read the letter and gently advises the girl to accept the prince. He asks her what she would do if Pinkerton never returned. Cio-Cio-San proudly carries forth her young son, “Sorrow.” As soon as Pinkerton knows of his son, she insists, he will return to them, and that day, “Joy” will become the child’s name. If her husband does not come back, she says she would rather die than return to her former life. Utterly defeated, but moved by Butterfly‘s devotion, Sharpless quickly exits.
A cannon roars from the harbor. Seizing a spyglass, Butterfly discovers that Pinkerton’s ship, the Abraham Lincoln, is coming into port. Deliriously happy, she orders Suzuki to help her strew the house with blossoms. As evening falls, Cio-Cio-San dons her wedding gown and with her maid and her son, she prepares to keep vigil throughout the long night.
ACT III
The pale light of dawn finds Suzuki and the baby asleep. Butterfly still stands watching and waiting. Suzuki awakens with the sunshine and insists that Cio-Cio-San rest. Humming a lullaby, the young mother carries her boy to another room. Before long, Sharpless, Pinkerton and Kate, his new wife, approach the house. Suzuki almost at once realizes who the strange woman is. Overcome with despair, she reluctantly agrees to aid in breaking the news to her mistress. Pinkerton, now surrounded by evidence of his fragile Butterfly’s unwavering faith and devotion, bids an anguished farewell to the scene of his former happiness. He then rushes away leaving the consul to arrange things as best he can. Cio-Cio-San hurries in expecting to find her husband, and instead finds Kate. She instantly guesses the truth and with touching dignity, Butterfly wishes “the real American wife” happiness. She asks Kate to tell Pinkerton that he may have his son if he will return for him in half an hour. Kate sadly departs with Sharpless.
Butterfly orders Suzuki and the child away. She pulls from its sheath the dagger with which her father committed suicide. She reads aloud its inscription, “To die with honor when one no longer can live with honor.” As she raises the blade to her throat, Suzuki pushes the boy into the room. Cio-Cio-San drops the knife and embraces her child, passionately imploring him to look well upon his mother’s face. After finally sending him off to play, she takes her father’s dagger and stabs herself. As Butterfly dies, Pinkerton’s voice is heard crying out her name.
Courtesy of Boston Lyric Opera
The Official Registrar
Andrew Gilstrap
Yakuside
Jaenam Lee
Sorrow
Abigail Hale
Operas on our mainstage are grand theatrical experiences. You can always expect the unexpected, and for our productions to be presented at the highest quality.
Supertitles
Many operas are in a foreign language. Supertitles are similar to subtitles in a film, except they are projected above the stage. These translations will help you follow what’s happening on stage.
What to Wear
There is no dress code at The Opera and you will see everything from jeans to evening gowns and formal suits. Most people use it as a chance to enjoy dressing up in their own style.
Arriving in Good Time
If you are late, you will be escorted to the nearest late seating area. At intermission ushers will show you to your seat. Plan ahead to arrive with extra time.
Pre-Performance Talk
Learn about the history of the opera, the composer, and more from artists and opera aficionados. One hour prior to curtain. Free with your ticket!
Familiarizing Yourself with the Story
Because of the foreign languages, classical music, and often complex plots, you will very likely enjoy the performance better if you spend a few minutes familiarizing yourself with the story and characters in advance. Some people even like to listen to the music in advance and others prefer to let it wash over them during the show and perhaps look it up afterwards.
Auditions
Actors first audition for roles up to a year in advance, or for more experienced artists, directors also invite them to play a role.
Rehearsals
Most of the rehearsals are held in our rehearsal hall, and not the actual theatre. The conductor begins orchestra rehearsals about a week and half before opening night. They have four rehearsals with the conductor, and then the singers are added into the mix.
Sets & Costumes
The Atlanta Opera Costume Shop alters the costumes to fit our singers. Sometimes they do have to make costumes if there aren’t enough, or if there is nothing that fits, etc. Once the sets are in place, the cast begins rehearsing at the theatre. The Opera production staff works with staff at the theatre to get all of the lighting and technical aspects of the production together.
Sitzprobe & Dress Rehearsal
The orchestra comes together with the singers in a special rehearsal called sitzprobe. There are no costumes during the sitzprobe, this is mainly to hear the voices with the orchestra. There is a piano dress rehearsal, when the singers rehearse in full costume for the first time so they can get used to wearing them. Finally, all of the pieces are put together for two full dress rehearsals leading up to opening night.
*member of the Glynn Studio Artist program
Giacomo Puccini (Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini) was born on December 22, 1858 in Lucca, Italy. He was one of the greatest exponents of operatic realism, who virtually brought the history of Italian opera to an end. His mature operas included La Bohème (1896), Tosca (1900), Madama Butterfly (1904), and Turandot (left incomplete).
Puccini was the last descendant of a family that for two centuries had provided the musical directors of the Cathedral of San Martino in Lucca. Puccini initially dedicated himself to music, therefore, not as a personal vocation but as a family profession. He was orphaned at the age of five by the death of his father, and the municipality of Lucca supported the family with a small pension and kept the position of cathedral organist open for Giacomo until he came of age. A performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida, which he saw in Pisa in 1876, convinced him that his true vocation was opera. In the autumn of 1880 he went to study at the Milan Conservatory, where his principal teachers were Antonio Bazzini, a famous violinist and composer of chamber music, and Amilcare Ponchielli.
Read MoreAfter the death of his mother, Puccini fled from Lucca with a married woman, Elvira Gemignani. Finding in their passion the courage to defy the truly enormous scandal generated by their illegal union, they lived at first in Monza, near Milan, where a son, Antonio, was born. In 1890 they moved to Milan, and in 1891 to Torre del Lago, a fishing village on Lake Massaciuccoli in Tuscany.
Puccini returned from Bayreuth with the plan for Manon Lescaut, based, like the Manon of the French composer Jules Massenet, on the celebrated 18th-century novel by the Abbé Prévost. Beginning with this opera, Puccini carefully selected the subjects for his operas and spent considerable time on the preparation of the librettos. The psychology of the heroine in Manon Lescaut, as in succeeding works, dominates the dramatic nature of Puccini’s operas. Puccini, in sympathy with his public, was writing to move them so as to assure his success. The score of Manon Lescaut, dramatically alive, prefigures the operatic refinements achieved in his mature operas: La Bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and La fanciulla del west (1910; The Girl of the Golden West). These four mature works also tell a moving love story, one that centers entirely on the feminine protagonist and ends in a tragic resolution.
The premiere of La fanciulla del west took place at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on December 10, 1910, with Arturo Toscanini conducting. It was a great triumph, and with it Puccini reached the end of his mature period. He admitted “writing an opera is difficult.” For one who had been the typical operatic representative of the turn of the century, he felt the new century advancing ruthlessly with problems no longer his own. He did not understand contemporary events, such as World War I. In 1917 at Monte-Carlo in Monaco, Puccini’s opera La rondine was first performed and then was quickly forgotten.
His last opera, based on the fable of Turandot as told in the play Turandot by the 18th-century Italian dramatist Carlo Gozzi, is the only Italian opera in the Impressionistic style. Puccini did not complete Turandot, unable to write a final grand duet on the triumphant love between Turandot and Calaf. Suffering from cancer of the throat, he was ordered to Brussels for surgery, and a few days afterward he died with the incomplete score of Turandot in his hands.
Turandot was performed posthumously at La Scala on April 25, 1926, and Arturo Toscanini, who conducted the performance, concluded the opera at the point Puccini had reached before dying. Two final scenes were completed by Franco Alfano from Puccini’s sketches.
Solemn funeral services were held for Puccini at La Scala in Milan, and his body was taken to Torre del Lago, which became the Puccini Pantheon. Shortly afterward, Elvira and Antonio were also buried there. The Puccini house became a museum and an archive.
The main feature of Puccini’s musicodramatic style is his ability to identify himself with his subject; each opera has its distinctive ambiance. With an unfailing instinct for balanced dramatic structure, Puccini knew that an opera is not all action, movement, and conflict; it must also contain moments of repose, contemplation, and lyricism. For such moments he invented an original type of melody, passionate and radiant, yet marked by an underlying morbidity; examples are the “farewell” and “death” arias that also reflect the persistent melancholy from which he suffered in his personal life.
Puccini’s conception of diatonic melody is rooted in the tradition of 19th-century Italian opera, but his harmonic and orchestral style indicate that he was also aware of contemporary developments, notably the work of the Impressionists and of Stravinsky. Though he allowed the orchestra a more active role, he upheld the traditional vocal style of Italian opera, in which the singers carry the burden of the music. In many ways a typical fin de siècle artist, Puccini nevertheless can be ranked as the greatest exponent of operatic realism.
Internationally acclaimed for his eloquence, energy, and command on the podium, Timothy Myers is driven by a wide breadth of repertoire and projects.
In 2021-2022, he leads The Marriage of Figaro and new productions of The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs and Fidelio at Austin Opera, where he serves as the Sarah and Ernest Butler Principal Conductor & Artistic Advisor. Other 21-22 activities include a subscription debut with the Sacramento Philharmonic, his fifth subscription series at the North Carolina Symphony. Pursuing his passion of mentoring the next generation of talent, Myers also begins a tenure as a faculty member and advisor to the Valissima Institute, a conducting intensive developed exclusively for female pre-college instrumentalists.
Read MoreHis Austin tenure began in the 2020-2021 season with a concert featuring Isabel Leonard, filmed for broadcast on PBS, and an acclaimed production of Tosca at the Circuit of the Americas amphitheater. Last season Mr. Myers also built on his long-time relationships with two institutions, filming David T. Little and Royce Vavrek’s opera Vinkensport at Houston Grand Opera and a subscription concert with the North Carolina Symphony.
In opera, highlights of recent seasons include the Santa Fe Opera leading Bizet’s Les pêcheurs des perles, a new production of West Side Story at Houston Grand Opera, the Rising Stars Concert at Lyric Opera of Chicago, the world premiere of The Fix (Joel Puckett / Eric Simonson) at Minnesota Opera, a new production of Massenet’s Don Quichotte at the Wexford Festival (his third appearance there), and a concert version of Act III of Siegfried at North Carolina Opera.
A protégé of Lorin Maazel, Myers’ symphonic engagements have led him to work with orchestras internationally including the American, Jerusalem, Beijing NCPA, Milwaukee, North Carolina, Portland, Toledo, Chautauqua Symphonies, as well as the Malaysian, Johannesburg, and Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestras.
Myers formerly held the posts of Principal Guest Conductor at Opera Africa and the Artistic and Music Director of North Carolina Opera, where his work inspired a precipitous rise in the performance standard and the forging of collaborations with diverse artists and institutions.
In June of 2021, Mr. Myers graduated from the Program for Leadership Development at the Harvard Business School, with an emphasis in Disruptive Innovation, Design Thinking, and the Business of Entertainment, Media, and Sports. He was also named to the Recording Academy Class of 2021 by a committee of industry peers.
He resides with his family in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he is actively involved in the community and serves as a board member of the Contemporary Art Museum of Raleigh (CAM).
General and Artistic Director of The Atlanta Opera since 2013, Israeli born Tomer Zvulun is also one of opera’s most exciting stage directors, earning consistent praise for his creative vision, often described as cinematic and fresh. His work has been presented by prestigious opera houses around the world, including The Metropolitan Opera, the opera companies of Israel, Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, Montreal, Wexford, Glimmerglass, Houston, Washington National Opera, Seattle, Dallas, Detroit, San Diego, Minnesota, Boston, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, New Orleans and Wolf Trap, as well as leading educational institutes and universities such as The Juilliard School, Indiana University, Boston University, and IVAI in Tel Aviv.
Since taking the leadership in Atlanta a decade ago, he personally directed thirty of the company’s productions. He increased the operations of the company from three to six productions per season, while stabilizing the financials and in the course of his first decade tenure, secured Atlanta’s position as one of the top 10 opera companies in the US. Some of his noted achievements includes launching the successful Discoveries series, creating the first young artist program in the company’s history, tripling the company’s annual fund raising, launching the company’s first RING cycle, creating The Atlanta Opera Film Studio, and building a theatre in a circus tent where performances were conducted safely during the pandemic.
Read MoreHis work at The Atlanta Opera attracted international attention by earning numerous awards and prizes including the nomination of The Atlanta Opera for the International Opera Awards in London and the selection of his production of Silent Night as both the Irish Times and Atlanta Journal-Constitution production of the year. His focus on innovation led to an invitation to deliver a TED talk as well as a case study that is being taught at Harvard Business School. His productions travel the world and bring wide exposure to the company. Next season his productions of Rigoletto travel to Los Angeles Opera, his La bohème returns to The Dallas Opera, and his acclaimed production of The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs will make its Kennedy Center debut at the Washington National Opera.
