Madama Butterfly at Boston Lyric Opera

Madama Butterfly, one of Puccini’s most compelling works, fusing soaring musical lyricism with deep psychological and emotional depth, opens the 2012/13 Season on a passionate note with a brand new look at one of the most devastating love stories ever told on the opera stage. Directed by Lillian Groag (Agrippina, 2011; Idomeneo, 2010) and conducted by Andrew Bisantz (Tosca, 2010), the production stars soprano Yunah Lee in her BLO debut as Cio-Cio San, a role for which she has received widespread critical acclaim and which Opera News recently declared her “signature role.” The new BLO production features new scenery by renowned designer John Conklin that evokes a delicately beautiful traditional Japanese setting, in which the tragic tale of love destroyed by a clash of cultures unfolds. A young geisha turns her back on all she has known and experienced and recreates herself in search of a new path, an escape, and a way towards love. She destroys herself in the process. The psychology of Cio-Cio San is shown through scenes of visionary insight and moments of frozen beauty that reveal her obsessions, her delusions, her fragility, and her endless capacity for passion and love. Tenor Dinyar Vania makes his BLO debut as Lieutenant Pinkerton. Mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor, seen recently in Opera Boston’s Béatrice et Bénédict, makes her debut as Suzuki, while baritone Weston Hurt debuts as Sharpless.

Boston Lyric Opera opens its new season on strong fiscal footing. In June, BLO surpassed its 2011 record for the most contributed funds in its history, with over $5 million raised last fiscal year. Three hundred fifty new donors helped push BLO well over its goal.

Performance Schedule:

Friday, Nov. 2, 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 4, 3 p.m.

Wednesday, Nov. 7, 7:30 p.m.

Friday, Nov. 9, 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 11, 3 p.m.

RELATED EVENT

Signature Series: Broken Blossoms

Explorations on Madama Butterfly

Western artists at the turn of the last century were mesmerized by Japanese culture. Enjoy performances and readings of works by Puccini, Stravinsky, Pound, and the Belasco play that became the opera's source. Immerse yourself in the beauty, ambiguity, and sometimes disturbing complexities of the Western perception of Japanese aesthetics.

These provocative preludes to the operas in BLO's season take place at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and employ a variety of art forms such as film, visual arts, theater, and music in one imaginative presentation. The Signature Series is enjoyed by opera fans as well as people who are simply curious.

Sunday, Oct. 21, 2012, The Museum of Fine Arts

Program at 2 p.m., Remis Auditorium

Reception at 3 p.m., Bravo Restaurant

$18 - BLO subscribers, MFA members, seniors and students

$22 - Non-Members

Add $50 for reception with BLO presenters and performers

To purchase tickets visit the MFA's website here, or contact Heather Coulter at hcoulter@blo.org or 617-542-4912 x229.

Upcoming

NEW OPERA ANNEX PRODUCTION

Feb.  6, 7, 9, 10m, 2013 

Artists For Humanity EpiCenter, 100 West 2^nd Street, Boston

CLEMENCY – North American Premiere

New BLO production

Co-commissioned by BLO, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Scottish Opera; and Britten Sinfonia
Sung in English
Music by James MacMillan │Libretto by Michael Symmons Roberts

Preceded by

HAGAR’S LAMENT

Sung in English

Music by Franz Schubert │Text by Clemens August Schücking

COSÌ FAN TUTTE

New BLO production

Sung in English with projected titles

Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart│Libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte

March 15, 17m, 20, 22, 24m, 2013

Citi Performing Arts Center Shubert Theatre

THE FLYING DUTCHMAN

New BLO production

Sung in German with projected English translation

Music and libretto by Richard Wagner, after an episode in Heine’s Memoiren des von Schnabelewopski

April 26, 28m, May 1, 3, 5m, 2013

Citi Performing Arts Center Shubert Theatre

Boston Lyric Opera (BLO) is New England’s largest opera company. Founded in 1976, BLO is recognized for its artistically excellent productions of a diverse repertoire that entertain and inspire audiences and feature emerging operatic talent. BLO produces four productions each season: three at the Citi Performing Arts Center^SM Shubert Theatre in Boston and an Opera Annex production in a found space. BLO’s programs are funded, in part, by grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. blo.org