Opera Verdi Europa to perform Madama Butterfly

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Center for the Arts at the University at Buffalo will present Opera Verdi Europa: Madama Butterfly at 7:30 p.m. on Oct 17 in the Mainstage theater in the Center for the Arts on the UB North (Amherst) Campus.

Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini. It is based on the play "Madame Butterfly" by David Belasco (1900) after magazine stories by John Luther Long's "Madam Butterfly (1898)" and Pierre Loti's "Madame Chrisanthème (1887)," which were based on a real incident. It was first performed in La Scala, Milan, Italy, on Feb. 17, 1904. Opera Verdi Europa is a company of 100 singers, chorus and symphony orchestra. The opera will be sung in Italian with English supertitles.

Japan's exotic allure contributes to one of the most romantic operas in history.  Cio-Cio-San (Butterfly) falls in love with an American, who falsely promises to return "when the robins nest again." When he returns with his new American wife to take his son, Butterfly kills herself, for he has taken everything that is precious to her. The tragedy unfolds with a grace that truly touches the soul with its passion.

In Madama Butterfly, Puccini was most strongly attracted by the character of the heroine, the very image of a typically Puccinian "little woman" with most intense feeling, and the exotic atmosphere fascinated him. It is the first opera of his in which he used authentic folk tunes (Japanese). The first performance at La Scala was a fiasco almost unique in the annals of opera and we are now certain that it was engineered by Puccini's many rivals. After revision in which the second and final act was divided into two parts, with an interval between, and various other cuts and alterations, Madama Butterfly achieved an enormous success at Brescia in May 1904.

Tickets for Opera Verdi Europa are $49, $39, and $29. Tickets are available from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday in the Center for the Arts Box Office and all Ticketmaster locations, including Kaufmann's. To charge tickets, call 852-5000; in Canada, call 1-416-870-8000. For group sales, call 645-6771. For more information, call 645-ARTS. The Center for the Arts is a Ticketfast location.