On April 22 and April 23, 2022 the famous opera Madama Butterfly by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, based on David Belasco’s novel of the same name, will be premiered at the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre. The opera is directed by Mariusz Treliński and designed by Boris Kudlička. The primary roles at the premiere will be performed by soloists of the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre.
The tragic story of Cio-Cio-san, a Japanese girl who fell in love with US Navy Lieutenant Pinkerton, was first performed in Vladivostok in 2016 at the I International Mariinsky Far East Festival. At that time Anna Maria Martinez, one of the leading contemporary sopranos, sang the title female role, and Yevgeny Akimov, Honored Artist of Russia, a soloist of the Mariinsky Theatre, performed the part of Pinkerton.
At the turn of the 20th century, about forty five years before the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, the young American officer Pinkerton comes to Japan and marries the charming Japanese girl Cio-Cio-san who is called Butterfly for her daintiness. Bewitched with her beauty, the lieutenant does not expect their marriage to be declared invalid in his native country. A year passes, and Pinkerton leaves his sweetheart who is expecting a child and returns to America to marry again. Cio-Cio-san falls patiently into abeyance. Three years pass, and, when he learns that Butterfly raises his son, Pinkerton arrives in Japan accompanied by his new wife to take the child away. Forced to part from her son, Cio-Cio-san makes up her mind for a desperate move...
Madama Butterfly by the great verist Giacomo Puccini was based on the autobiographical 1888 novel Madame Chrysanthème by Pierre Loti, a French writer and traveler. Loti’s novel was further recast: the memoirs written by a sister of the American writer John Luther Long were added, and in 1900 the American stage director David Belasco adapted the novel for the stage. Having seen Belasco’s play during his stay in London, Giacomo Puccini was so thrilled that he suggested that Luigi Illic and Giuseppe Giacosa should write an opera libretto based on the play. The subject, which was taken from distant Japan’s life, answered European artists’ turn-of-the-century anxiety for exoticism or aspiration to enrich their range of expression with new tinges. The opera, which was written within 1903–1904 and was further revised by the composer, went over with flying colors and firmly established itself on the world’s opera stage.
“Puccini described the woman too fond of her husband who saw almost God in him and disregarded her belief, family and home for him. That was a story of the woman who broke the commandment “Thou shalt not make to thyself an idol”. The final act becomes a sign of atonement and victory”, the stage director Mariusz Treliński noted. The scenery emphasizes a principle of a union of natural and manmade things, yet revered in Japan. The costumes bear a kind of resemblance to those of the Meiji Era; the scenic light is in bright and clean shades, which evoke sensation of a mystery. The stage director makes the audience see that the totally regulated way of the heroin’s sacrificial living was the cause of the tragedy. The opera demonstrates that trampling on love is too terrible and cruel. The history of the Japanese girl’s love for the American officer turns into a tragedy for both of them. Their mindlessness and credulity play a dirty trick on the cultural clash background.
