Madama Butterfly

Japanese tragedy in 3 acts
Libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa
after „Madame Butterfly“ by David Belasco
First performed on 17th February 1904 in Milan
Premiered at the Deutsche Oper Berlin on 20th June 1987

3 hrs / 1 interval

In Italian with German and English surtitles

Pre-performance lecture (in German): 45 minutes prior to each performance

recommended from 14 years

About the performance

About the work
Lieutenant Pinkerton is attached to an American ship currently moored in Nagasaki harbour. He has been courting a 15-year-old geisha girl named Cio-Cio-san, known as Butterfly, who is from a poor but genteel family and takes love very seriously. Pinkerton wants to enter into a “time-limited marriage” – not uncommon between European men and geishas at the time – and is even being helped by Goro, the marriage agent, to find a cottage in which they can spend their honeymoon. The US consul, Sharpless, warns him against such a step, but Pinkerton brushes him off and even toasts the day when he will take an American to be his “real” wife.

The repercussions of this foreign liaison for the Japanese girl, who has even converted to the creed of her lover, turn out to be grave: she is shunned by her family after the wedding and Pinkerton is hard put to console his “butterfly”. Three years go by. Cio-Cio is living in seclusion with her young child and her faithful servant Suzuki. She declines all marriage proposals from Prince Yamadori as she is persistent in her belief that Pinkerton will return. When Sharpless arrives with a note from Pinkerton asking him to inform her that he is now married to an American woman and will shortly be arriving in Nagasaki, Sharpless is horrified to see that the affair has produced a child and cannot bring himself to mention Kate, the new wife. Cio-Cio, overjoyed, decorates her home, dons her bridal dress and awaits her beloved husband. When Pinkerton visits with Kate and the consul, Suzuki is given the full facts: she is to persuade Butterfly to surrender her child. Pinkerton can’t bear to face Cio-Cio and ducks out of a face-to-face encounter. Butterfly catches sight of the other woman and realises that Pinkerton has come not to stay but to take the child. She asks for half an hour in which to bid farewell to her son. Then she kills herself.

Synopsis

Place: Nagasaki, Japan.
Time: 1904.

Japanese tragedy in three acts (1904)

Act 1
In 1904, a U.S. Naval officer named Pinkerton rents a house on a hill in Nagasaki, Japan, for him and his soon-to-be wife, "Butterfly". Her real name is Ciocio-san, (''cio-cio'', pronounced "chocho": the Japanese word for "butterfly" is ''chō'' 蝶). She is a 15-year-old Japanese girl whom he is marrying for convenience, since he intends to leave her once he finds a proper American wife, and since Japanese divorce laws are very lax. The wedding is to take place at the house. Butterfly had been so excited to marry an American that she had earlier secretly converted to Christianity. After the wedding ceremony, her uninvited uncle, a [[Bhikkhu|''bonze'']], who has found out about her conversion, comes to the house, curses her and orders all the guests to leave, which they do while renouncing her. Pinkerton and Butterfly sing a love duet and prepare to spend their first night together.

 Act 2
Three years later, Butterfly is still waiting for Pinkerton to return, as he had left shortly after their wedding. Her maid Suzuki keeps trying to convince her that he is not coming back, but Butterfly will not listen to her. Goro, the marriage broker who arranged her marriage, keeps trying to marry her off again, but she won't listen to him either. The American Consul, Sharpless, comes to the house with a letter which he has received from Pinkerton which asks him to break some news to Butterfly: that Pinkerton is coming back to Japan, but Sharpless cannot bring himself to finish it because Butterfly becomes very excited to hear that Pinkerton is coming back. Sharpless asks Butterfly what she would do if Pinkerton were not to return. She then reveals that she gave birth to Pinkerton's son after he had left and asks Sharpless to tell him.

From the hill house, Butterfly sees Pinkerton's ship arriving in the harbour. She and Suzuki prepare for his arrival, and then they wait. Suzuki and the child fall asleep, but Butterfly stays up all night waiting for him to arrive.

 Act 3
Suzuki wakes up in the morning and Butterfly finally falls asleep. Sharpless and Pinkerton arrive at the house, along with Pinkerton's new American wife, Kate. They have come because Kate has agreed to raise the child. But, as Pinkerton sees how Butterfly has decorated the house for his return, he realizes he has made a huge mistake. He admits that he is a coward and cannot face her, leaving Suzuki, Sharpless and Kate to break the news to Butterfly. Agreeing to give up her child if Pinkerton comes himself to see her, she then prays to statues of her ancestral gods, says goodbye to her son, and blindfolds him. She places a small American flag into his hands and goes behind a screen, cutting her throat with her father's [[hara-kiri]] knife. Pinkerton rushes in. He is too late.

Program and cast

Conductor: Stephan Zilias, Friedrich Praetorius (20.02.2026 | 23.02.2026)

Director, Stage design, Costume design: Pier Luigi Samaritani

Chorus Master: Thomas Richter

Cio-Cio-San: Carmen Giannattasio, Asmik Grigorian (07.01.2026 | 10.01.2026), Elena Stikhina (20.02.2026 | 23.02.2026)

Suzuki: Karis Tucker, Martina Baroni (07.01.2026 | 10.01.2026)

Kate Pinkerton: Lucy Baker

Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton: Attilio Glaser, Dmytro Popov (07.01.2026 | 10.01.2026), Andrei Danilov (20.02.2026 | 23.02.2026)

Sharpless: Joel Allison, Germán Olvera (07.01.2026 | 10.01.2026)

Goro: Burkhard Ulrich

Prince Yamadori: Jörg Schörner

The Bonze: Paul Minhyung Roh, Byung Gil Kim (07.01.2026 | 10.01.2026)

Imperial Commissioner: Navasard Hakobyan

Official Registrar: Benjamin Dickerson

La Madre di Cio-Cio-San: Seungeun Oh

Cugina: Sin-Ae Choi

Zia: Asahi Wada

Chorus: Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin

Orchestra: Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin