Madama Butterfly

The failure of Puccini's Madama Butterfly at La Scala, Milan in 1904 is one of opera's most celebrated fiascos. Puccini immediately withdrew the work, made a few judicious cuts and re-writes, and a couple of months later it emerged triumphant in Brescia. Since then, it has become one of the most popular and loved works in the repertory.

From Tosca to Turandot and Madam Butterfly

Video of Tosca watched, it was onto the next one. A local record shop had three titles in the same series, all in productions from the Arena in Verona. All three were Puccini operas, and having enjoyed Tosca, Turandot and Madam Butterfly seemed logical progressions.

The Arena in Verona is an old Roman amphitheatre. An opera festival takes place in the summer under the stars. You can sit in designated seats in the stalls, but thousands buy a ticket for the steps and sit in unmarked places on the stone. Performances begin as it darkens (about 9pm) and can last early into the morning. As the performance time approaches, people on the steps light candles to give the whole arena a magical glow.

You can find out more about the Arena di Verona here: http://www.arena.it/en-US/HOMEen.html

From that Turandot production, here is Nicola Martinucci (with trademark facial hair) singing what was, for many, the soundtrack of 1990: Calaf's aria Nessun dorma (ignore the subtitles, and the video unfortunately cuts at the end to a slideshow of other singers)

If you have any questions or thoughts, please feel free to post a comment.