The Metropolitan Opera: Madama Butterfly / 2009

Anthony Minghella’s stunning production of Puccini’s opera opened the Met’s 2006–07 season and was seen by thousands of people around the world as part of the company’s Live in HD series. Patricia Racette is Cio-Cio-San, the trusting and innocent young geisha of the title, who disastrously falls in love with American Navy lieutenant B. F. Pinkerton (Marcello Giordani), only to be abandoned by him. Maria Zifchak is her loyal servant Suzuki and Dwayne Croft is Sharpless, the sympathetic American consul who does all he can but is unable to avert tragedy. Performance Date Mar 7, 2009

Madama Butterfly - Wiener Staatsoper / 2018

from the Vienna State Opera

Opera Australia: Madama Butterfly / 2008

Cheryl Barker, Jay Hunter Morris, Douglas McNicol and Ingrid Silveus star in this Opera Australia production of Puccini's "Madama Butterfly," featuring the Australian Opera Chorus and Ballet Orchestra and directed by Moffatt Oxenbould. In a classic romantic plot, a U.S. Navy lieutenant falls in love with a Japanese geisha and marries her despite her family's objections. But will he break her heart by choosing to return to America without her?

MADAMA BUTTERFLY - OPERA DIFERIDO /

The Royal Opera House: Madama Butterfly / 2022

Cio-Cio-San, the young Japanese bride of American naval officer Lieutenant Pinkerton, finds her romantic idyll shattered when he deserts her shortly after their marriage. She lives in hope that one day he will return. Three years later, Cio-Cio-San and her son, Dolore, see Pinkerton’s ship in the harbour. She excitedly awaits his visit – but when Pinkerton and his American wife Kate arrive and learn about Dolore's existence, they ask to take the boy away, and raise him in America. Cio-Cio-San bids her son farewell and takes her own life.

The Metropolitan Opera: Madama Butterfly / 2009

Anthony Minghella’s beautiful, atmospheric production of Puccini’s tragedy returns to cinemas this summer in a stunning performance recorded live from the Metropolitan Opera in 2009. Soprano Patricia Racette stars as Cio-Cio-San, the trusting and innocent young geisha who disastrously falls in love with American Navy lieutenant B. F. Pinkerton, sung by tenor Marcello Giordani.

The Metropolitan Opera: Madama Butterfly / 2019

Ever since it opened the 2006–07 season, Anthony Minghella’s striking production of Madama Butterfly has been a Met classic. Drawing inspiration from traditional Japanese theater, Minghella’s staging retells this heartbreaking tale with brilliant stagecraft, bold colors, and bunraku puppetry. In this Live in HD performance from the fall of 2019, Chinese soprano Hui He stars as Cio-Cio-San, the young geisha who puts her trust in a visiting American naval officer, only to later be abandoned by him. In a feat of operatic heroics, tenor Bruce Sledge appears as the callous Pinkterton, stepping into the role on short notice to replace an ailing colleague. Pier Giorgio Morandi conducts one of opera’s most tragic masterpieces, leading a cast that also includes mezzo-soprano Elizabeth DeShong as Cio-Cio-San’s loyal companion, Suzuki, and Tony Award–winning baritone Paulo Szot as the U.S. consul Sharpless.

The Metropolitan Opera - Puccini: Madama Butterfly / 2016

Anthony Minghella’s beautiful, atmospheric production enhances Puccini’s drama of unfortunate, doomed love. Soprano Kristine Opolais brings all of her passionate commitment to her portrayal of Cio-Cio-San, the teenage geisha who gives up everything for Lt. Pinkerton. Roberto Alagna is the American naval officer who does not understand the depth of Cio-Cio-San’s love, and whose subsequent marriage to an American woman precipitates Butterfly’s suicide. Maria Zifchak is Suzuki, Cio-Cio-San’s faithful servant, and Dwayne Croft plays the American consul Sharpless, who tries to avert the tragedy. Karel Mark Chichon conducts.

Madama Butterfly on Sydney Harbour / 2014

Puccini's tale of love and honour is brought to life by the world-renowned Opera Australia on a magnificent water stage, suspended over Sydney Harbour.

Royal Opera House 2023/24: Madama Butterfly / 2024

Cio-Cio-San, the young Japanese bride of American naval officer Lieutenant Pinkerton, finds her romantic idyll shattered when he deserts her shortly after their marriage. She lives in hope that one day he will return.

Puccini, Madama Butterfly - Cheryl Barker, Robert Wilson, De Nederlandse Opera 2003 /

When Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton (Martin Thompson), Lieutenant in the United States Navy, meets the 15 year-old geisha Cio-Cio San (Mrs Butterfly), he finds her so exotically lovely that he marries her, and the two lovers quickly have a baby together. But the American man only stays for a short time in Nagazaki, and finally goes back to the United States, where he marries another young woman..

Madama Butterfly 蝶々夫人 in Japanese and English Aratani Theatre / 2019

So what if... what if a brash American naval officer and a young Japanese girl met and fell in love? How would they communicate? (Certainly not in Italian!) In POP’s most ambitious production to date, Artistic Director Josh Shaw’s long-time dream of a bilingual Madama Butterfly comes to life at The Aratani Theatre in Little Tokyo. With a new libretto by Josh Shaw and Eiki Isomura, all Japanese roles will be sung in Japanese and all American roles will be sung in English. This is a co-production with Opera in the Heights (Houston). This production is sponsored in part by an Innovations Grant from Opera America.