Madame Butterfly program book

April 26, 28, May 3, 5, 2024 Academy of Music

PUCCINI

Madame Butterfly

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Madame Butterfly

Music by Giacomo Puccini

Libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa

Cio Cio San

Lt. Pinkerton

Sharpless Goro Suzuki Bonze

Prince Yamadori

Kate Pinkerton

Imperial Commissioner Registrar Trouble

Yakuside Cousin Mother

Aunt

Puppet Artist

Conductor Director

Production Design

Costume Design

Lighting Design

Hair and Make-up Design

Chorus Master

Puppet Creation and Puppet Movement Director

Stage Manager

Karen Chia-ling Ho*

Anthony Ciaramitaro*

Anthony Clark Evans

Martin Bakari*

Kristen Choi

Suchan Kim*

Kyle Miller*

Anne Marie Stanley*

André Chiang*

Sang Bum Cho*

Jayden Wu*

George Ross Somerville

Lauren Cook

Evelyn Santiago Schulz

Joanna Gates

Hua Hua Zhang*

Corrado Rovaris

Ethan Heard*

Yuki Izumihara*

Anita Yavich*

Connie Yun*

Amanda Clark

Elizabeth Braden

Hua Hua Zhang*

Jennifer Shaw

*Opera Philadelphia debut

Performed in Italian with English supertitles. Approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes including one 20-minute intermission.

Opera Philadelphia's 2023–2024 Season is brought to you by the Artistry Now Matching Fund and Barbara Augusta Teichert.

Maestro Corrado Rovaris' engagement as the Jack Mulroney Music Director has been made possible by Mrs. John P. Mulroney. Support for this production of Madame Butterfly has been provided by Ellen Steiner.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

BOARD LEADERSHIP

Stephen K. Klasko, M.D., M.B.A. | Board Chair

David B. Devan | President

Willo Carey | Vice Chair

Charles C. Freyer | Vice Chair

Thomas Mahoney | Treasurer

MEMBERS

Ira Brind

Lawrence Brownlee

Willo Carey

Katherine Christiano

Maureen Craig

William Dunbar

David Ferguson

Charles C. Freyer

Deena Gu Laties

Alexander Hankin

John Karamatsoukas

Stephen K. Klasko, M.D., M.B.A.

Beverly Lange, M.D.

Peter Leone, Immediate Past Chair

Thomas Mahoney

Sarah Marshall

Taneise S. Marshall

Agnes Mulroney

Colleen O’Riordan

Bob Schena

Carolyn Horn Seidle

Barbara Augusta Teichert

Kathleen Weir

Yueyi (Kelly) Zhou

HONORARY MEMBERS

Dennis Alter

H.F. (Gerry) Lenfest†

Stephen A. Madva, Esq.,

Chairman Emeritus

Alan B. Miller

Alice W. Strine, Esq.

Charlotte Watts

† Deceased

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the Academy of Music for the final production of Opera Philadelphia’s 2023-2024 Season. Whether this is your first time experiencing a live opera in this building or your 100th visit, I know you will discover something new and exciting in these performances of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly.

This marks the final production in the 18-year tenure of our General Director & President, David B. Devan, and it is a very fitting opera to conclude David’s tenure. When David was first starting his career in Canada, it was Madame Butterfly that made him fall in love with the art form, admitting that he “cried like a baby” at the conclusion of the performance.

I hope that many of you first-timers in the audience experience such a transformation after this opera, and that it begins a lifelong relationship with Opera Philadelphia. My hometown opera company continues to redefine what arts organizations should mean to their community. I saw several examples of this just last month. At a March 9 gala celebration honoring David, I was struck by how many star opera singers who got their starts with Opera Philadelphia described us as a supportive environment for singers to learn and grow in their careers. The following weekend, it was wonderful to see our company out in the community, with the Opera Philadelphia Chorus performing side-by-side with the Wharton-Wesley Faith Ensemble, performing music by Black composers centered on the poetry of Harlem Renaissance icon Langston Hughes.

It is an exciting time in Philadelphia, as our city looks ahead to being the focus of the country's 250th birthday celebration in 2026. Opera Philadelphia’s focus on the future is embodied by our upcoming 2024-2025 Season, which you can learn more about on page 18.

I invite you to join me in supporting Opera Philadelphia’s vital role in our community as we chart even greater heights in the 2024-2025 Season and beyond.

Warmly,

Chair

Welcome to Opera Philadelphia

Opera Philadelphia is committed to fostering an environment of belonging and inclusion for our entire community. We have adopted this Code of Conduct to ensure the comfort and safety of all artists, contractors, staff, supporters, and volunteers. We are committed to maintaining an environment wherein everyone is treated with respect, dignity, and compassion. By purchasing a ticket or entering our environment, you agree to the tenets of Opera Philadelphia’s Code of Conduct.

We are an anti-racist organization. We are fierce advocates for the rights of our trans community. Behavior that is harmful to others or disruptive to our communal sense of belonging for all will not be tolerated.

operaphila.org/codeofconduct

Dear Friends,

Madame Butterfly is among my favorite operas and this new production of Puccini’s masterpiece is here in Philadelphia thanks to the vision, dedication, and commitment of a large group of artists and community partners.

During my tenure as General Director, Opera Philadelphia has consistently committed to making sure that our work reflects contemporary city life and to being in an active and supporting relationship with our diverse community. One of these important and enduring relationships started with a dialogue with local Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community members in 2016 around our production of Turandot. Inspired by these conversations, we committed to creating more rewarding opportunities for AAPI artists throughout our artistic practice.

It is in that spirit that we established a Community Advisory Council to advise on our new production of Madame Butterfly. What has emerged is a project that celebrates the power of opera – the power to bring people together to experience our shared humanity with music, story and artistic vision and intention.

On behalf of the entire Opera Philadelphia family, I extend our thanks and gratitude to the artists who have created, performed, and given of themselves to realize this masterpiece with the independence, love and care that typifies the Philadelphia spirit. If you want to participate in this ongoing dialogue of exploration and discovery, please explore “Butterfly Conversations” at operaphila.org/conversations.

And finally, thank you for allowing me the privilege of serving this company for the past 18 years – it has been an honor and a great joy of my life to work with so many inspiring people on stage, in the office, in the Board room, in our great city and in the wide world of opera – truly thank you. And I will see you in the audience in September for the American premiere of Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s The Listeners – yes, I have become a subscriber and if you haven’t you should too.

David B. Devan General Director & President

ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF

LEADERSHIP

David B. Devan, General Director & President

Corrado Rovaris, Jack Mulroney Music Director

Dr. Derrell Acon, Vice President of People Operations & Inclusion

Veronica Chapman-Smith, Vice President of Community Initiatives

David Levy, Vice President of Artistic Operations

Frank Luzi, Vice President of Marketing Communications & Digital Strategy

Gina J. Range, Vice President of Development

Ken Smith, Chief of Staff

Lawrence Brownlee, Artistic Advisor

MUSIC

Michael Eberhard, Director of Casting & Artistic Administration

Sarah Williams, Director of New Works & Creative Producer

Elizabeth Braden, Chorus Master & Music Administrator

J. Robert Loy, Orchestra Librarian & Personnel Coordinator

Nathan Lofton, Orchestra Contractor & Personnel Manager

Grant Loehnig, Head of Music Staff

PRODUCTION

Bridget A. Cook, Director of Production

Drew Billiau, Director of Design & Technology

Stephen Dickerson, Technical Director

Millie Hiibel, Costume Director

Emily Wanamaker, Artistic Operations Coordinator

DEVELOPMENT

Rebecca Ackerman, Senior Director of Development

Derren Mangum, Director of Institutional Giving

Adele Mustardo, Director of Events

Aisha Wiley, Director of Research

Steven Humes, Associate Director of Advancement

Aubre Naughton, Major Gifts Officer

Colby Calhoun, Major Gifts Associate

COMMUNITY INITIATIVES

Christa Sechler, Education Manager

Alex Graham, Education Coordinator for In-School Programs

Abby Weissman, Assistant Manager of Youth and Community Programs

Chloe Lucente, Teaching Artist

Liz Filios, Teaching Artist

Elizabeth Gautsche, Teaching Artist

Valentina Sierra, Teaching Artist

Chabrelle Williams, Teaching Artist

Julian Nguyen, T-VOCE Accompanist

Dicky Dutton, T-VOCE On-site Coordinator and Vocal Mentor

Whitney Covalle, T-VOCE Conductor

Dan Amadie, Backstage Pass Consultant

Dr. Lily Kass, Scholar in Residence

PEOPLE OPERATIONS & INCLUSION

Catherine Reay, Director of Employee Engagement

MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS & GUEST SERVICES

Claire Frisbie, Director of Marketing

Michael Knight, Director of Guest Services

Jeffrey Mason, Guest Services Manager

Yimika Osinulu, Marketing Communications Coordinator

Ana Kola, Guest Services Associate

Haeg Design, Graphic Design

FINANCE

Jeremiah Marks, CFO Client Consultant

COUNSEL

Ballard Spahr, LLP, General Counsel

ARTISTS

MARTIN BAKARI he/him

Tenor | Goro

Yellow Springs, Ohio

Opera Philadelphia debut

Recent: Soloist, Messiah, Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie Hall; Dr. Caius, Falstaff, Houston Grand Opera; Charlie Parker, Charlie Parker's Yardbird, Indianapolis Opera

Next: Greene Evans, Jubilee, Seattle Opera

ELIZABETH BRADEN she/her

Chorus Master

Easton, Pennsylvania

Recent: Chorus Master, Simon Boccanegra, Opera Philadelphia; Chorus Master, 10 Days in a Madhouse, Opera Philadelphia; Conductor, Penn Chorale, University of Pennsylvania

Next: Chorus Master, The Listeners, Opera Philadelphia

ANDRÉ CHIANG he/him

Baritone | The Imperial Commissioner

Mobile, Alabama

2022 Otello, 2023 La bohème

Opera Philadelphia debut

Recent: Artist Martínez/Ecce Homo, Behold the Man, Opera Las Vegas; Escamillo, Carmen, Opera Western Reserve; Guglielmo, Le villi, Mobile Opera

Next: Ping, Turandot, OperaDelaware

SANG BUM CHO he/him

Tenor | The Registrar

Seoul, South Korea

Opera Philadelphia debut

Recent: Don José, Carmen (Opera Scenes Showcase), Vocal Artists Management Services; Germont (La traviata), Calàf (Turandot), Art Songs & Arias Concert, Korean American Cultural Foundation Inc.; Tenor Soloist, Carmina Burana, Columbus Symphony

Next: Solo Recital, First Reformed Church, New Brunswick, NJ

KRISTEN CHOI she/her

Mezzo-soprano | Suzuki

Torrance, California

2021 TakTakShoo, 2022 The Raven

Recent: Second Maidservant, Elektra, Dallas Opera; Alto soloist, Messiah, Phoenix Symphony; Suzuki, Madame Butterfly, Detroit Opera

Next: Suzuki, Madame Butterfly, Florentine Opera

ARTISTS

ANTHONY CIARAMITARO

Tenor | Lt. Pinkerton

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Underwritten by Judith Durkin Freyer and Charles C. Freyer

Opera Philadelphia debut

Recent: Rodolfo, Luisa Miller, Opéra de Tours; Faust, Mefistofele, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma; Alfredo Germont, La traviata, Macerata Opera Festival

Next: Ismaele, Nabucco, Savonlinna Festival

AMANDA CLARK she/her

Hair and Makeup Design

Highlands Ranch, Colorado

Recent: Wigs and Makeup Designer, Simon Boccanegra, Opera Philadelphia; Associate Hair and Makeup Designer, Les Miserables, US National Tour; Wigs and Makeup Designer, La cenerentola, Opera Maine

Next: Wigs and Makeup Designer, Aida, Opera Maine

LAUREN COOK she/her

Mezzo-soprano | Cousin

Fort Worth, Texas

Recent: Stéphano, Roméo et Juliette, Arizona Opera; Rosina, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Virginia Opera; Ava, Rocking Horse Winner, Opera Maine

Next: Featured soloist, It’s About Time recital series, Salt Creek Song Festival

ANTHONY CLARK EVANS he/him

Baritone | Sharpless

Owensburg, Kentucky

Underwritten by Carolyn Horn Seidle

Recent: Riccardi, I puritani, Dresdener Philharmonie; Alfio, Cavalleria Rusticana, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra; Raimondo, Lucia di Lammermoor, Cincinnati Opera

Next: Marcello, La bohème, Metropolitan Opera

JOANNA GATES she/her

Mezzo-soprano | The Aunt

Hockessin, Delaware

Recent: Alto soloist, Messiah, Bryn Athyn Cathedral; Dido, Dido and Aeneas, Opera Box; Soloist, Tunes, Tomfoolery, and Treats, Professional Performance Series at Snyder School of Singing

Next: Alto, Month of Moderns I - Not so much Watching as Waiting, The Crossing

ARTISTS

ETHAN HEARD he/him

Director

Washington, D.C.

Opera Philadelphia debut

Recent: Director, Pacific Overtures, Signature Theatre; Director/Adaptor, Fidelio, Heartbeat Opera; Co-Founder, Heartbeat Opera

Next: Director, Soft Power, Signature Theatre Arlington

KAREN CHIA-LING HO she/her

Soprano | Cio Cio San

Hainesville, Illinois

Opera Philadelphia debut

Recent: Mimì cover, La bohème, Metropolitan Opera; Cio Cio San, Madame Butterfly, Boston Lyric Opera; Princess Jia, Dream of the Red Chamber, San Francisco Opera

YUKI IZUMIHARA she/her

Production Designer

Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan

Underwritten by Ms. Deena Gu Laties

Opera Philadelphia debut

Recent: Projection Designer, An American Dream, Indiana University; Projection Designer, Lunar New Year GALA, San Francisco Symphony; Production Designer, Inkwell, ODC Dance

Next: Projection Designer, Bulrusher, West Edge Opera

SUCHAN KIM he/him

Baritone | The Bonze

Busan, South Korea

Opera Philadelphia debut

Recent: Bass, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Opera Grand Rapids; Escamillo, Carmen, Tacoma Opera; Don Giovanni, Don Giovanni, Teatro Grattacielo

Next: Lord Enrico Ashton, Lucia di Lammermoor, Opera in Williamsburg

KYLE MILLER he/him

Baritone | Yamadori

San Francisco, California

Underwritten by VIVACE Members

Opera Philadelphia debut

Recent: Masetto, Don Giovanni, Deutsche Oper Berlin; Sensor, Grounded, Washington National Opera; Larkens, La fanciulla del West, Cleveland Orchestra

Next: Sensor, Grounded, Metropolitan Opera

CORRADO ROVARIS he/him

Conductor

Bergamo, Italy

Underwritten by Mrs. John P. Mulroney

Recent: Conductor, Le nozze di Figaro, Deutsche Oper Berlin; Conductor, Alfredo il grande, Donizetti Festival; Conductor, Simon Boccanegra, Opera Philadelphia

Next: Conductor, La traviata, Santa Fe Opera

EVELYN SANTIAGO SCHULZ she/her

Soprano | The Mother

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Recent: Cio Cio San cover, Madame Butterfly (2009), Opera Philadelphia; Brambilla, La Périchole, Opera Philadelphia; Soprano soloist, A Sea Symphony, Lancaster Symphony

GEORGE ROSS SOMERVILLE he/him

Tenor | Yakuside

Point Pleasant, NJ

Recent: Snout, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Opera Philadelphia; Spoletta, Tosca, Sarasota Opera; Trin, La fanciulla del West, Des Moines Metro Opera

Next: Tenor soloist, The Messiah, Nassau Presbyterian Church

ANNE MARIE STANLEY she/her

Mezzo-soprano | Kate Pinkerton

Princeton, NJ

Underwritten by Karen A. Zurlo Ph.D.

2017 The Wake World 2021 Amici e Rivali

Opera Philadelphia debut

Recent: Lucretia, The Rape of Lucretia, Britten Pears Arts; Third Wood Sprite, Rusalka, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Adalgisa, Norma, Palm Beach Opera

Next: Maddalena, Rigoletto, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

JAYDEN WU he/him

Actor | Trouble

Moorestown, New Jersey

Opera Philadelphia debut 2022 Rigoletto 2023 La bohème

Recent: Choir, The Nutcracker, Philadelphia Ballet; “Sing Choirs of Angels - Walking in the Air,” Philadelphia Boys Choir and Chorale; High Honors Award, New Jersey Music Teachers Association 2021 Spring Piano Recital Auditions

Next: Advanced Cadet, Season Concert, Philadelphia Boys Choir

ARTISTS

CONNIE YUN she/her

Lighting Design

East Lansing, Michigan

Opera Philadelphia debut

Recent: Lighting Designer, L’Allegro, il Penseroso, ed il Moderato, Curtis Opera Theatre; Lighting Designer, The Marriage of Figaro, Portland Opera; Lighting Designer, The Marriage of Figaro, New Orleans Opera

Next: Lighting Designer: Maria de Buenos Aires, Florentine Opera

HUA HUA ZHANG she/her

Puppet Artist | Cio Cio San

Beijing, China

Opera Philadelphia debut

Recent: Puppeteer, Tian Wen – Heavenly Questions for Modern Times, Visual Expressions; Puppeteer, White Night, Visual Expressions; Puppeteer, Dream of Land, Visual Expressions.

Next: Puppeteer, Dragon in our Dreams, Visual Expressions

CHORUS

Support for the Opera Philadelphia Orchestra and Chorus has been provided by Alice and Walter Strine, Esqs.

SOPRANO

Natalie Esler

Noël Graves-Williams

Julie-Ann Green

Valerie Haber

Jessica Moreno

Jorie Moss

Jessica Mary Murphy

Christine Nass

Aimee Pilgermayer

Evelyn Santiago Schulz

Amy Spencer

ALTO

Tanisha Anderson

Jennifer Beattie

Robin Bier

Lauren Cook

Joanna Gates

Megan McFadden

Meghan McGinty

Maren Montalbano

Natasha Nelson

Ellen Grace Peters

Sam Rauch

TENOR

Matteo Adams

Corey Don

Colin Doyle

A. Edward Maddison

Toffer Mihalka

Andrew Skitko

George Ross Somerville

Daniel Taylor

Cory O’Niell Walker

ORCHESTRA

Support for the Opera Philadelphia Orchestra and Chorus has been provided by Alice and Walter Strine, Esqs.

VIOLIN 1

Max Tan, concertmaster

Meichen Liao-Barnes, assistant concertmaster

Natasha Colkett

Donna Grantham

Elizabeth Kaderabek

Diane Barnett

Catherine Kei Fukuda

Mary Loftus

Gared Crawford

Rebecca Ansel

Hyojung Samantha Crawford

VIOLIN 2

Tess Varley, principal

Luigi Mazzocchi

Maya Shiraishi

Heather Zimmerman Messé

Sarah DuBois

Paul Reiser

Guillaume Combet

Lisa Vaupel

Natalie DaSilva

VIOLA

Jonathan Kim, principal

Jay Julio, assistant principal

Julia DiGaetani

Elizabeth Jaffe

Yoshihiko Nakano

Steven Heitlinger

Ruth Frazier

CELLO

Branson Yeast, principal

Vivian Barton Dozor, assistant principal

Brooke Beazley

Jennie Lorenzo

David Moulton

Elizabeth Thompson

BASS

Alexander Bickard, principal

Anne Peterson

Daniel McDougall

Stephen Groat

FLUTE

Brendan Dooley, principal

Eileen Grycky

Kimberly Trolier, piccolo

OBOE

Geoffrey Deemer, principal

Oliver Talukder

Evan Ocheret, English horn

CLARINET

John Diodati, principal

Allison Herz

Doris Hall-Gulati, bass clarinet

BASSOON

Erik Höltje, principal

Emeline Chong

HORN

John David Smith, principal

Lyndsie Wilson

Karen Schubert

Ryan Stewart TRUMPET

Bryan Kuszyk, principal

Steve Heitzer

Frank Ferraro

TROMBONE

Robert Gale, principal

Matthew Moran

Jonathan Schubert, bass trombone

TUBA

Paul Erion, principal

TIMPANI

Martha Hitchins, principal

PERCUSSION

Ralph Sorrentino, principal

Brad Loudis

Brent Behrenshausen

HARP

Sophie Bruno, principal

STAGE VIOLA

Shannon Merlino

ARTISTIC & PRODUCTION STAFF

Assistant Director ....................................................................................................... Nico Krell*

Assistant Stage Managers .................................................... Hunter Smith, Brianna Thompson

Associate Puppet Movement Director ............................................................. Jacinta Yelland*

Puppet Costume Design Associate .............................................................................. Jojo Siu*

Principal Pianist ..................................................................................................... Grant Loehnig

Properties Supervisor ................................................... Avista Custom Theatrical Services, LLC

Assistant Lighting Designer ................................................................... Aleksandra Anistratova

Supertitle Operator ................................................................................................... Tony Solitro

Supertitle Author ................................................................................... Chadwick Creative Arts

Audio Description .............................................................................................. Nicole Sardella

Technical Director ......................................................................................... Stephen Dickerson

Head Electrician ............................................................................................ Chris Hetherington

Head Properties .......................................................................................................... Paul Lodes

Head Flyman ................................................................................................... Jay Wojnarowski

Programmer / Assistant Electrician ............................................................... John Allerheiligen

Head Carpenter .................................................................................................. Mike Troncone

Wardrobe Supervisor .............................................................................................. Elisa Hurley

Associate Costume Director .................................................................................. Becca Austin

Cutter/Drapers ................................................... Althea Unrath, Kara Morasco, Julie Watson

First Hands ........................................................ Patrick Mulhall, Joy Rampulla, Morgan Porter

Shopper .......................................................................................................... Christine DiJoseph

Japanese Movement Consultants ............... Fumiyo Kobayaski Batta*, Nobuko Lapreziosa*

Trouble Cover ....................................................................................................... Junchi Wang*

Supernumerary ................................................................................................. Jacinta Yelland*

Production Intern ................................................................................................ Alex Dembner*

*Opera Philadelphia debut

Madame Butterfly costumes owned by The Glimmerglass Festival

Opera Philadelphia thanks the following labor organizations whose members, artists, craftsmen, and craftswomen greatly contribute to our performances:

American Federation of Musicians, Local 77 is the collective bargaining agent for Opera Philadelphia Orchestra musicians.

American Guild of Musical Artists / The American Guild of Musical Artists, the union of professional singers, dancers, and production personnel in opera, ballet, and concert, affiliated with the AFL-CIO, represents the Artists and Staging Staff for all purposes of collective bargaining.

International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees / Local 8

Theatrical Wardrobe Union / Local 799, I.A.T.S.E.

United Scenic Artists / Local 829, I.A.T.S.E.

Box Office and Front of House Employees Union / Local B29, I.A.T.S.E.

Highway Truck Drivers and Helpers / Local 107, Teamsters

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Three Operas at the Academy of Music

Highlight the 2024–2025 Season

Opera Philadelphia’s 2024–2025 Season begins in September with the highly anticipated American Premiere of The Listeners, the newest opera from the Philadelphiaborn, Grammy-nominated composer Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek.

Their 2016 world premiere, Breaking the Waves, was a phenomenon that won the inaugural Best New Opera Award from the Music Critics Association of North America and has been staged around the world since its Philadelphia debut. Performed at the historic Academy of Music from September 25–29, The Listeners is a thriller about social rejection, suburban loneliness, and the seductive power of cults and charismatic leaders in a divided nation.

Based on an original story by Jordan Tannahill, the opera is inspired by an actual phenomenon called “the global hum,” a low-pitched sound that people around the world claim to hear. A middle-class mother (soprano Nicole Heaston in her company debut) living in a southwestern U.S. suburb notices a “hum,” a high-frequency environmental noise that only a select few people, the "Listeners,” can hear. A community organization quickly forms to solve the mystery of the hum, but when the de facto leader (Kevin Burdette) suggests a spiritual significance, the meetings become increasingly cult-like. Is this community of “Listeners” on a collision course with destruction?

“It is the realization of a personal dream to work at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia,” said Missy Mazzoli. “I have a clear memory of walking by that building as a teenager and thinking, ‘one day, my music will be performed here.’ The Listeners was a fantastic project to debut with Norwegian National Opera in 2022, and I cannot wait to bring it to the U.S. with my hometown company, Opera Philadelphia.”

Soprano Nicole Heaston stars in The Listeners. Photo by Erik Berg.

Winter brings the company premiere of The Anonymous Lover, a 1780 opera by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de SaintGeorges (1745-1799), who is widely regarded as the first Black classical composer known to history and was the subject of the film Chevalier. When a young widow named Léontine (soprano Symone Harcum) begins to receive a series of passionate letters from a secret admirer, she wrestles with whether she can love again, especially when it becomes apparent her friend Valcour (tenor Khanyiso Gwenxane) may be the un-signed author. Will love win?

The Anonymous Lover is directed by Dennis Whitehead Darling and conducted by Kalena Bovell, both making their Opera Philadelphia debuts.

The season closes in spring with a new production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, set to premiere this summer at Cincinnati Opera. Mozart’s riveting masterpiece follows the charming predator Don Giovanni, a man who uses people without a care for their hearts, or the consequences of his actions. All the while, the sleazy nobleman’s loyal servant records his master’s misdeeds. When he murders the father of a woman he’s assaulted, Giovanni sets in motion events that could lead to his downfall. Will he get away with his crimes and unrepentant pursuit of selfish desire? Or will there be hell to pay?

American stage director Alison Moritz has quickly gained a reputation for her innovative interpretations of the classic repertoire and her equally incisive takes on contemporary music theater. Her work focuses on using music as a prism for human emotion—as such, her work has been praised for her “edgy, teeth-grinding style” by the New York Observer, and her recent projects have been lauded “enchantingly cheeky” (Washington Post), “elegantly sexy,” and “raw, funny, surreal, and disarmingly human” (Opera News).

Heralded for his “firm, flexible baritone” (New York Times) and “swaggering, rakish” stage presence (Opera News), Timothy Murray makes his Opera Philadelphia debut in the title role. A recent graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Canadian soprano Olivia Smith makes her company debut as Donna Anna. Soprano Elizabeth Reiter returns as Donna Elvira, and bass-baritone Nicholas Newton makes his Opera Philadelphia debut in the role of Leporello.

Subscriptions and season ticket packages are now on sale at operaphila.org, or by calling 215.732.8400 (Monday through Friday, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.). Single tickets will go on sale on Tuesday, June 25.

Opera Philadelphia's 2024-2025 Season is brought to you by the Artistry Now Matching Fund and Barbara Augusta Teichert. Academy of Music productions are made possible with support from Judy and Peter Leone.

A scene from Boston Lyric Opera’s staging of The Anonymous Lover. Photo by Nile Scott Studios.

1904. A house on a hill in Nagasaki, Japan.

Prologue

An American Navy Lieutenant, B. F. Pinkerton, purchases a Japanese doll.

Act I

Pinkerton inspects his new house, and Goro, a Japanese marriage broker, introduces the servants. Sharpless, the US Consul to Nagasaki, arrives, and the men toast to Pinkerton’s upcoming nuptials. Along with the house, Pinkerton has paid for an arranged marriage with Cio Cio San, a fifteen-year-old geisha known as Madame Butterfly.

Sharpless has concerns about the marriage: he is convinced that it means more to Cio Cio San than it does to Pinkerton. He fears that Pinkerton will destroy the young girl. Pinkerton tells him not to worry about the marriage. One day, he will “marry for real, a true American wife.”

Cio Cio San arrives with her relatives. She is from a noble family, but her father committed suicide at the request of the emperor. Having fallen into poverty, Cio Cio San has had to earn a living by entertaining men with song and dance as a geisha.

The wedding is a brief civil ceremony. As the guests celebrate and toast the new couple, the Bonze, a Buddhist monk, and Cio Cio San’s uncle, arrives in a rage. He reveals that Cio Cio San has recently converted to Christianity, forsaking her tradition and ancestors. The Bonze and Cio Cio San’s other relatives renounce her and depart.

Pinkerton comforts Cio Cio San. Suzuki, her faithful servant, prepares her for her wedding night. The newlyweds are left alone. As darkness falls, Pinkerton claims his butterfly.

Photo by Ray Bailey.

Act II

Three years later, Cio Cio San and Suzuki are on the verge of complete poverty. Soon after he married Cio Cio San, Pinkerton left Japan, promising that he would return in the spring “when the robins nest.” Suzuki tries to make Cio Cio San see that Pinkerton will never return. But Cio Cio San is certain he will come back and determinedly waits for him.

Sharpless visits with a letter from Pinkerton. Before he can read it to Cio Cio San, the wealthy prince Yamadori arrives with the marriage broker Goro. Yamadori knows that Cio Cio San has been abandoned by her husband and wishes to take her as his bride. She rejects his offer.

Yamadori leaves with Goro, and Sharpless again attempts to read the letter. He tries to reveal the truth—that Pinkerton has remarried—but he struggles to admit it, finally blurting out that she should marry Yamadori. Cio Cio San reveals she has given birth to Pinkerton’s son, and Sharpless promises to relate this news to Pinkerton.

A cannon-shot is heard from the harbor. Pinkerton’s ship has returned. Cio Cio San and Suzuki decorate the house with flowers. Cio Cio San waits up all night for her husband's arrival.

Act III

The next morning, Cio Cio San puts her son to bed. Pinkerton and Sharpless find Suzuki alone, and Pinkerton reveals that he is traveling with his new American wife named Kate. They want to take the boy back to America with them.

Remembering his life in the house, Pinkerton is wracked with guilt and flees. When Cio Cio San reenters, she looks for him, only to find Kate. Cio Cio San finally awakens to the reality of her situation. She tells Sharpless and Kate that she will give up her son if Pinkerton comes back in half an hour. Sharpless and Kate depart.

Cio Cio San ends one chapter and begins another.

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DIRECTOR'S NOTE

By Ethan Heard

European men created the Butterfly story. Pierre Loti wrote the semi-autobiographical Madame Chrysanthème in 1887; John Luther Long published the short story “Madame Butterfly” in 1889; David Belasco adapted that novella into a play two years later (with a famous, 14-minute, silent “waiting” scene); and Puccini saw the play and composed Madama Butterfly in 1904, with a libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. These works were all part of the wave of European fascination with Japan that began after Admiral Matthew Perry forcibly opened Japan to the West in 1854 with the Convention of Kanagawa.

Puccini’s Butterfly is a fifteen-year-old Japanese girl who epitomizes faithfulness and self-sacrifice. As the opera is traditionally staged, she converts to Christianity, severs ties with her family, raises a child for more than two years while waiting for her husband’s return, relinquishes her son, and kills herself. Pinkerton describes her as “doll-like” and joyfully exclaims, “to think that that toy is my wife!”

Is Madame Butterfly believable? Or is Cio Cio San's story a fantasy invented by White men who knew very little of Japan, Japanese culture (not to mention music), and Japanese women? And what does it mean to perform this opera today when it can perpetuate erroneous, harmful stereotypes of “the submissive Asian woman?” Why do other opera companies continue to cast non-Asian singers in Asian roles and employ the offensive tradition of yellowface?

Our production casts Asian and Asian American singers in all of the lead roles and separates Pinkerton’s fantasy — a perfect, “doll-like” puppet — from Cio Cio San’s true Spirit. Over the course of the opera, the Spirit awakens to the role she is being asked to play. Our Cio Cio San realizes the trap — and trope — she’s been caught within and bravely walks into a new chapter ahead.

Hopefully, we can accompany her.

Hua Hua Zhang works on one of the Cio Cio San puppets.

Photo by Ray Bailey.

By Yuki Izumihara

When I saw my first Madame Butterfly, designed by Jun Kaneko at Opera Omaha in 2019, I was mesmerized. A beautiful simple set, evocative and uniquely Jun. The person next to me jumping up after “Un bel dì” as if at a baseball game. Otherworldly music. And my eyes growing ever wider from discomfort with the words on the supertitle screen. I felt uneasy, but that feeling was drowned out by the vigorous applause that filled my ears.

When I was 18, I emigrated from Japan to the United States, sharing the same desires Cio Cio San has until she reaches that age at the end of the opera and concludes she can no longer live honorably. This year I turn 36, ending the halfway cycle to a major milestone, one’s fifth cycle of twelve years, and twice as old as Cio Cio San when she takes her life. Asked to conceptualize a new production of Madame Butterfly, I kept thinking about that night in Omaha, the love for Jun’s beautiful design, and for the music. I kept thinking about Cio Cio San — just fifteen at the beginning of the opera, and my life in Japan at that age. I kept thinking about honor in this show compared to honor as cultivated among my kendo teammates.

I thought about everything that raced through my mind that night, and my hesitancy to “reclaim” Madame Butterfly. The following was my proposal to Opera Philadelphia:

Madame Butterfly: A Farewell Ritual

Dolls are not thrown away in Japan. There is a ceremony to give them a proper good-bye.

It’s an appreciation of the doll — for sharing its time.

It’s a celebration of us — as we come to outgrow it.

“Unrooted” perhaps best describes how Madame Butterfly lands with me. Puccini trapped Butterfly in a beautiful score. In turn, Butterfly has become a trap: AAPI artists are asked to lend it authenticity and life in new productions that promise much but change little.

To liberate ourselves from Puccini’s beautiful trap I propose accepting Cio Cio San as the puppet he created and rendering her as such onstage. Through this form, our production becomes a cautionary tale, examining how ongoing misrepresentation in content and character portrayal affects us all and takes over, unless and until we put our emphasis on the future — positivity and empowerment.

Thank you to those who support our voices, and to the creative colleagues with whom I’m fortunate to collaborate. I hope, through this production, to stimulate conversation toward forward-looking productions.

MADAME BUTTERFLY AND MY JAPANESE-AMERICAN EXPERIENCE

By A. H. Nishikawa

As a four-year-old American of Japanese descent being sent to a federal prison camp during World War II (1939-1945), I could not imagine a story like Madame Butterfly.

My parents were born in California, but after an economic recession hit America following World War I (1914-1918), my grandparents moved back to Japan to raise them there. In 1937, my parents returned to the United States as adults to reclaim their American birthright. In the late 1940s, my mom developed an interest in listening to the radio and classical music records—Beethoven, Mozart, Smetana, etc. Our home was filled with classical music and opera. With her nurturing during my middle school years, I also developed a lifelong ear for classical music which eventually led, to my surprise, to opera. Like many, I got hooked through the music of Puccini, Verdi, Mascagni, and other well-loved composers (“it’s the melody, stupid”).

In particular, I got hooked on Madame Butterfly’s arias, which led me to study the story, plot, and characters in more detail. Pinkerton, as an American character, enjoyed respect and privilege as perceived by a European composer like Puccini. By contrast, my American-ness had been adversely impacted by racist U.S. laws which prevailed at the time of Butterfly’s composition. For example, a federal 1790 law prevented my Japaneseborn grandparents from becoming naturalized U.S. citizens; a 1913 California law prevented them from owning a house, farm, or real estate.

In contrast to Pinkerton’s life of privilege, my parents began life in America as working class: my father became a trained chef and my mother cleaned people’s homes. Four years later, World War II was declared with the bombing of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii by Japanese planes. Soon after, my entire family, the Nishikawas, was imprisoned for “looking like the enemy.”

Japanese Americans were sent to concentration camps in Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming. My family and I were placed in Poston War Relocation Center—the largest of these concentration camps—built in 1942 in southwestern Arizona. There were three separate camps within Poston; we were put into Camp 1 with 6,000 other people. At its peak, over 17,000 people were interned at the three Poston Camps, making it the third largest “city” in Arizona.

A 1944 photograph of the Nishikawa family taken in the Poston War Relocation Center. A.H. Nishikawa, who provided this photo, is standing in the center rear of the image.

We lived in poorly constructed tar-papered barracks and ate in military-style mess halls. Families had to bathe daily in community showers where the toilets were. The weather was unbearable with temperatures reaching upwards of 115°F in the summer heat and as low as -35°F in the coldest winter.

After the trauma of the World War II camp incarceration suffered by my parents and the Nikkei (Japanese American) community, our family settled in Gilroy, California, hoping for a life of peace and well-being. Talk about Camp was rare, but they coached us kids to become more ‘Americanized’—get into team sports, become more proficient in English, study hard, and bring honor to one’s family. But it would still take more profound changes in legal, social, and cultural environments before I could imagine myself enjoying the respect and privileges that Pinkerton enjoyed in Japan.

Following World War II, these racially punitive statutes along with anti-miscegenation (marriage between people of different races) laws were revoked. Thus began the climate change for my brothers and me to live more American. Also new were the large waves of Asian war brides who immigrated to the U.S. with their servicemen-husbands. (Pinkerton could have been way ahead of his time!) This had a profound impact socially and culturally on Asian Americans of my generation and beyond. Even though Butterfly and Pinkerton’s story was set in the 1890s, it had started to become "familiar" in the mid-20th century. Fortunately, in real life these marriages had happier outcomes in contrast to the tragic endings of operatic tales and plots.

We can speculate that if Butterfly’s son moved to the United States to live with Pinkerton and his wife Kate, he would have had better prospects and a happier life than living as a mixed-raced individual in Japan, where xenophobia, or fear of others from different cultures, was more entrenched—then and even now. Europeans have long been involved with inter-ethnic marriages. Puccini might not have had second thoughts about having a mixed-race character were he able to compose a sequel to Butterfly. In contrast, the Japanese have long considered themselves as mono-ethnic. Even today, Japan has the lowest immigrant acceptance rate of any developed country in the world.

As World War II camp survivors, we were reminded by my parents of certain Japanese cultural concepts and principles of life and living. One was gambare (gam-bah-REH), which in English sort of means “to survive by persistence; to stick to it so as to overcome; to make a critical decision." This was pounded into us whenever we encountered adversity in life. They told us that gambare was how the Nikkei community survived camp life. While not specifically mentioned (or even alluded to) in the opera story or script, my perceptions of Butterfly’s actions in Act III are that she was driven by gambare to honor her familial samurai traditions by seppuku (ritual suicide).

As a longtime opera aficionado, I’ve regarded the plot lines as fairy tales or fantasies. And indeed, most are. This essay is the first time I was challenged with the open-ended question of finding meaning in themes and ideas presented in an opera which connects with real life experiences and insights. I hope my attempts here will inspire you to do the same.

A.H. Nishikawa is a member of Opera Philadelphia’s Community Advisory Council.

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Opera Philadelphia expresses our deepest gratitude to the individuals and institutions whose support allows us to bring you Madame Butterfly.

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List as of April 4, 2024

Kyle Miller with VIVACE Members following the Emerging Artist Recital in February

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The Dream

Adapted from A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare with Prodigal Son