The critically-acclaimed and wildly popular Madama Butterfly returns to the Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour stage. Under the stars, with fireworks every night as well as pop-up bars and eateries, this is “the most impressive outdoor event in Australia… You don’t need to understand opera to understand what makes the occasion great” (Concrete Playground) Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour: Madama Butterfly is at Mrs Macquaries Chair from 24 March to 23 April 2023. https://opera.org.au/harbour
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Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour
Cheat Sheet: Madama Butterfly on Sydney Harbour
Here’s everything you need to know…
What happens in the story? Who was the composer? What should I expect from the music?
Page to stage: Madama Butterfly on Sydney Harbour
Take a look at the costume and stage design for this beautiful opera on the Sydney Harbour.
Cheat Sheet: Madama Butterfly on Sydney Harbour
Here’s everything you need to know…
What happens in the story? Who was the composer? What should I expect from the music?
Page to stage: Madama Butterfly on Sydney Harbour
Take a look at the costume and stage design for this beautiful opera on the Sydney Harbour.
Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour: Madama Butterfly in 2014. Photo: James Morgan.
This production is…
A grand outdoor staging by Spanish theatrical innovator Àlex Ollé, from the groundbreaking company La Fura dels Baus. In this version, Pinkerton is transformed into a contemporary businessman and developer, who has his eyes set on the paradise where he finds Cio-Cio-San.
Lluc Castell’s costume designs for Madama Butterfly.
A little history
Puccini was in the audience in London to see David Belasco’s one-act play Madam Butterfly in 1900. He was captivated, and wrote to the publisher, “The more I think about Butterfly, the more excited I become. Ah, if only I had it here with me to work on!”
The resulting opera gathers together Belasco’s play (based on John Luther Long’s short story) and material from Pierre Loti’s novel Madama Chrysanthème to create the full, three-act tale of Cio-Cio-San’s betrayal.
When Butterfly premiered in 1904, it was a fiasco. Puccini described it as “a real lynching… an orgy of lunatics, drunk on hate”.
He reworked the opera, adding Pinkerton’s agonised “Addio, fiorito asil” aria to the music and making theatrical changes to give Butterfly both more dignity and a greater isolation, to add to the final tragedy.
Puccini rewrote it five times — and the fifth and final is the one usually performed around the world.
Conversation starters
- Puccini was quite the Pinkerton himself — a womaniser who had quite a reputation among the ladies.
- He wrote the opera at a time when his marriage was falling apart, as news of his recent affairs broke.
- The composer himself believed it was his best: “the most heartfelt and evocative opera I have ever conceived”.
Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour: Madama Butterfly
Fleet Steps, Mrs Macquaries Point, Sydney
24 March to 23 April 2023
AuntyUta 
It sounds wonderful Uta!!
Yes, I am sure it is a wonderful production. I like this opera. I wished I could go there to see it in the open near the Harbour! 🙂
I wish I could see this. I was in Sydney last year, and loved the city. This would be a sublime performance in that setting.
Yes, it is a wonderful setting at Sydney Harbour
I saw a movie projected on the outside of the opera house there. It was glorious.
I’m glad, Trent, that you liked it so much. 🙂