Giacomo Puccini wrote no fewer than five versions of Madama Butterfly, with one of them receiving its world première right there at the New York Metropolitan Opera in 1906. This work depicting, with extraordinary passion and deep emotional sincerity, the story of an abandoned Japanese geisha, victim of a shore leave romance, and an American naval officer from the other side of the world has been one of the most-performed pieces in opera houses everywhere for more than a century. With melodies and harmonies that go straight to the heart and soul, it is a work in which Puccini proved himself unsurpassable. When a performance has the kind of elemental force that this Met production will, the impact could hardly be greater.
Primarily specialised in the operas of Verdi and Puccini and delivering astonishing portrayals on stage, Chinese soprano Hui He is one of the greatest performers of the title role active today. In a professional sense, her partner, Bruce Sledge first took the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in 2003 in the role of Count Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and he has since won acclaim with his lyric tenor voice primarily in Mozartian and bel canto roles. Bringing the American counsel Sharpless to life is the Brazilian baritone Paulo Szot, who made his Met début in 2010 as Kovalyov in Shostakovich's opera The Nose. He last sang Sharpless at the Opéra de Marseille. Singing Suzuki will be the wonderful American mezzo-soprano Elizabeth DeShong.
The conductor is also a familiar presence for the Hungarian audience: one of the outstanding interpreters of the Italian repertoire, Pier Giorgio Morandi has honoured this country's opera world with his appearances here for decades; he first conducted at the Met in 2017. The artist who staged the production is none other than the director of the Oscar-winning film The English Patient: Anthony Minghella, who died in 2008, won several distinctions for this sweepingly forceful Madama Butterfly, including the Society of London Theatre's Laurence Olivier Award in 2006.

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