13.02.2015

Madame Butterfly given great reception in Kazan

The opera is in the 33rd Chaliapin Festival’s playbill.

(Kazan, 23 February, Tatar-inform). Madame Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini was on Thursday night shown within the 33rd Chaliapin Festival at Tatar Opera and Ballet Theatre.

People’s Artist of Tatarstan Eduard Treskin came onstage to welcome the audience. Puccini’s life in art had not been simple, he said. “His was a path of tireless search of new themes, stories and sources of inspiration. His musical language is extremely varied. The composer used different melodies, including oriental. In his time critics reproached Puccini for breaking the Italian operatic tradition. Time has shown he is a simple genius, whose opera has been on opera stages in the whole world,” he said.

The opera’s storyline is based on real events. In late 19th century, a geisha called Cio-Cio-San, nicknamed Madame Butterfly, lived in Nagasaki. As the opera’s main character, she married a foreigner. When her husband left, she had a son. She then married a rich Japanese, left Nagasaki but could not live with her husband, divorced him and came back to her native city, where she lived until 1905, when Madame Butterfly premiered in Paris.

Last night, the part of Madame Butterfly was performed by Germany’s Sicheng I, part of Pinkerton by Germany’s Georgy Oniani. Andrei Grigoriev of Russia’s Bolshoi Theatre was in the role of Sharpless, while Suzuki was performed by Zoya Tsererina of Jalil Opera and Ballet Theatre.

Vincent de Kort was at the conductor’s stand.

The opera not only tells the story of the Japanese woman but shows a collision between the East and the West, leading the audience to believe the two are incompatible.

The performance offered striking scenery, costumes, light design and, above all, performers’ talent.