Madame Butterfly by Puccini to thrill Peralada once again

Madame Butterfly, a Japanese tragedy as Giacomo Puccini himself described his opera, is the work chosen for the 31st edition of the Castell de Peralada Festival. In a co-production with the Düsseldorf-Duisburg Deutsche Oper Am Rhein, this opera penned by Joan Anton Rech, with stage design by Alfons Flores and wardrobe by Mercè Paloma, has been premièred on 4 February at the Deutsche Oper Am Rhein in Duisburg (Germany), and will be performed at Peralada on the evening of 7 and 8 August at the Castle Park Auditorium.

For the occasion, as is customary at the Peralada Festival, the piece will be performed by an exceptional cast of voices: soprano Ermonela Jaho, playing the fragile and emotional Cio-Cio-San; the ruthless B.F. Pinkerton will be sung by tenor Bryan Hymel; the United States consul in Nagasaki, Sharples, will be performed by Carlos Álvarez; and mezzo-soprano Gemma Coma-Alabert will be singing the part of loyal servant Suzuki; all accompanied by the voices of the Chorus of the Gran Teatre del Liceu. The music will be performed by the Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa, conducted by the acclaimed Dan Ettinger, who is making his Castell de Peralada Festival début this year.

This is not the first time that Madame Butterfly, one of the most famous works from the classical repertoire, has been performed at the Peralada Festival. In 2004, British dancer Lindsay Kemp penned a piece where the voice of soprano Cristina Gallardo-Domâs interpreted the role of the most sentimental of Puccini's heroines. Later, in 2006, choreographer and dancer Ramon Oller premièred his own Madame Butterfly at Peralada where the male dancers played the female roles and the female dancers played the male roles.

This year, a Catalan team of artists, led by stage director Joan Anton Rechi, will be presenting an updated Madame Butterfly. Rechi presents a disturbing and emotional piece set in the poetic universe of destruction. The story, set in the darkest period of the city of Nagasaki during the Second World War, turns the tragedy that affects the female protagonist immersed in desolation into a collective tragedy, which affects all the characters in the story