Gramophone Magazine
December 2018
DVD/Blu-ray of the Month

Ermonela Jaho (Cio-Cio San), Marcelo Puente (Pinkerton), Scott Hendricks (Sharpless), Carlo Bosi (Goro), Elizabeth DeShong (Suzuki), Jeremy White (Bonze)

Royal Opera House, Antonio Pappano. Moshe Leiser/Patrice Caurier

Puccini’s Japanese tragedy Madama Butterfly is given a ravishing production by The Royal Opera. Its alluring imagery of Japan from the 19th-century European Imagination heightens the intense clash of East and West.

When the American naval officer Pinkerton seduces the young ‘Butterfly’ Cio-Cio-San, he seems to promise every happiness – but his cruel abandonment leads to her tragic self-sacrifice. Antonio Pappano, Music Director of The Royal Opera and renowned for his interpretations of Puccini, conducts an exceptionally fine cast with the Royal Opera Chorus and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. Powerful performances show why Madama Butterfly remains one of the all-time operatic favourites.

Subtitles: EN/FR/DE/JA/KO

Running time: 149 minutes

"Pappano is particularly alert to Puccini borrowing traditional Japanese melodies; at times he makes you hear this score, as well as the drama on stage, as a tug of war between East and West…It’s Sharpless and Suzuki who steal the show – a consul with a tender conscience from Scott Hendricks and Elizabeth DeShong as a maid who could melt the stoniest of hearts." - BBC Music Magazine Christmas Issue 2018