MADAMA BUTTERFLY

A dramatic love story that begins with a magnificent wedding, in which an American naval officer, Lieutenant Pinkerton, marries his beloved Butterfly. She believes in his eternal love and faithfulness. But he returns to his homeland and leaves her. She is willing to wait for him, forever. When Pinkerton finally returns, he finds a forlorn woman with a child, still at the now deserted place where they celebrated their wedding. When he takes the child, he sees Butterfly take out her father’s knife …

Giacomo Puccini’s opera about Cio-Cio San, known as Butterfly, who forsakes her family, her faith and her culture in order to marry an American lieutenant called Pinkerton, is one of the most popular and performed operas of all time. This production, directed by Kirsten Harms, achieved great success when it premiered here at the Royal Swedish Opera in 2014, and has been performed to sold-out theatres since then.