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© Dario Acosta
Madama Butterfly
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 May 2025 | ||||||
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Mo | Tu | We | Th | Fr | Sa | Su |
New production – Berliner Philharmoniker, Kirill Petrenko
Giacomo Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly has been moving audiences since its premiere in 1904. The story of the geisha Cio-Cio-San and the American officer Benjamin F. Pinkerton includes everything that makes a successful opera: great emotions, drama, and sound paintings that showcase the orchestra in all its facets. Director Davide Livermore has already been honored three times to open the season of La Scala in Milan. Jonathan Tetelman almost feels at home in Baden-Baden. He sang the title role in Werther and roused the audience to storms of applause at the season-opening gala in 2024. Butterfly Eleonora Buratto celebrates her Baden-Baden debut with one of her star roles.
Synopsis
Act 1
In 1904, a U.S. naval officer named Pinkerton rents a house on a hill in Nagasaki, Japan, for himself and his soon-to-be wife, "Butterfly". Her real name is Cio-Cio-San (from the Japanese word for "butterfly" (蝶々, chōchō, pronounced [tɕoꜜːtɕoː]); -san is a plain honorific). She is a 15-year-old Japanese girl whom he is marrying for convenience, and he intends to leave her once he finds a proper American wife, 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 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 won’t listen to her. Goro, the marriage broker who arranged her marriage, keeps trying to marry her off again, but she doesn’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 can’t 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 in his hands and goes behind a screen, stabbing herself with her father's seppuku knife. Pinkerton rushes in, but he is too late, and Butterfly dies.
Program and cast
Giacomo Puccini
Madama Butterfly
Estimated end time: 8:30 PM
Berliner Philharmoniker ORCHESTRA
Kirill Petrenko CONDUCTOR
Davide Livermore DIRECTION
Giò Forma STAGE
Eleonora Burrato MADAMA BUTTERFLY (CIO-CIO-SAN)
Jonathan Tetelman B.F. PINKERTON
Teresa Iervolino SUZUKI
Tassis Christoyannis SHARPLESS
Didier Pieri GORO
Aksel Daveyan FÜRST YAMADORI
Festspielhaus Baden-Baden
The Festspielhaus Baden-Baden is more than just its foyer, entrance area and stage: it is a setting for dreams to come true!
“These acoustics!”
even world-renowned stars enthusiastically affirm that they can finally risk the most tender of pianissimos here. Very few ingredients are required to transform unequalled acoustics into a unique evening – passion, perfect service, great emotions and small but well-placed gestures transform Germany’s largest opera house into a second home for artists, visitors, guests…
What began as a fiasco ...
... became a legend. This saying combines hopes, visions, tears, and dreams. Dreams of artists who became friends, and friends who grew into loyal supporters of an idea: that it is possible to run an opera house of this size purely with private funding. And so the legend continues. The best years are still to come.
The Festspielhaus Baden-Baden is Germany’s largest opera and concert house, with a 2,500 seat capacity.
The new construction was architecturally integrated with the former Baden-Baden railway station - today encompassing the box office, Festspielhaus restaurant “Aida” and Children’s Music World “Toccarion” by the Sigmund Kiener Foundation - and was opened on 18 April 1998. Wilhelm Holzbauer of Vienna was the architect of the new construction. Following initial public start-up funding, the Festspielhaus successfully converted to become the first privately financed European opera and concert company. This had been the original objective.
Since March 2000, the privately managed Festspielhaus Baden-Baden Cultural Foundation has been responsible for operating the non-profit limited company (GmbH), whilst Andreas Mölich-Zebhauser has held the role of General Manager and Artistic Director since July 1998. It is the only German opera house to have operated successfully without external subsidies since the year 2000. The town and country will reacquire the property from a private investor.
A coterie of approximately 2000 private sponsors - including “Friends of the Festspielhaus”, a 1,500 member registered society – annually support the Festspielhaus programme to the tune of around eight million Euros. About two-thirds of the approximately 20 million Euro budget is financed by ticket sales, gastronomy sales and royalties, with the remaining one-third coming from private donations and sponsorships.
The average annual audience attendance capacity encompassing all the concert, opera and ballet performances is approximately 85% (2013). The Festspielhaus Baden-Baden also operates its own travel agency and organises cultural journeys to Baden-Baden. In a study carried out by the University of St. Gallen in 2008, the conclusion was drawn that the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden generated additional annual income of around 45 million Euros, greatly benefitting the town and surrounding region of Baden-Baden.
Arrival
By car, simply take the autobahn exit signposted “Baden-Baden” on the Basel-Frankfurt A5 Autobahn and follow the Festspielhaus signs. The regional airport “Baden Airpark” is only 15km from the Festspielhaus.
Parking
There are two underground car parks in close proximity to the opera house – one at the Festspielhaus, the other at the Kaufhaus Galerie Wagener. The Wagener car park is situated off Lange Strasse in the centre of Baden-Baden, approximately 7 minutes from the Festspielhaus by foot. Due to limited capacity, there can be delays when entering or leaving the car parks.
Cloakroom
We ask our guests to leave their coats and jackets in the cloakroom, as they may not be taken into the concert hall. Cloakrooms are located on the ground, second and third floors.
Opening hours
In order to make your arrival as relaxing as possible, the foyer and bars open 90 minutes prior to the commencement of the performance. Food and beverages are also on offer during intermission and following the performances.
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