Performers
Cho-cho san (Butterfly): Cheryl Barker, soprano
Pinkerton: Jay Hunter Morris, tenor
Sharpless: Douglas McNicol, baritone
Suzuki: Ingrid Silveus, mezzo-soprano
Goro: Graeme MacFarlane, tenor
Imperial Commissioner : John Cummins, bass
Official Registrar: Gregory Brown, bass
Bonze: Michael Saunders, bass
Prince Yamadori: Angus Wood, baritone
Kate Pinkerton: Julie Edwardson, mezzo-soprano

Opera Australia Chorus
Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra
Patrick Summers (conductor)


This is a vibrant and powerful modern staging of Puccini's classic from Opera Australia - one of the most compelling and convincing productions you're likely to see.

Puccini composed Madam Butterfly in 1904, to a libretto based on play by Belasco which in turn was based on a magazine story by JL Long. While in Japan, Lt Pinkerton, an American navy officer, falls in love with "Cho-cho san", a Japanese woman (whose nickname is, literally the Japanese for "Madam Butterfly"). Pinkerton has to return to the US but promises Cho-cho san he will return. She has become pregnant and gives birth to a son while Pinkerton is gone; she waits for Pinkerton many years while the boy grows older. Eventually, Pinkerton returns with his American wife in order to take his son to the US. Cho-cho san eventually agrees to give up her son but, her reason for existing now gone, kills herself.