Madama Butterfly
Set in post-Atomic bomb Nagasaki, stage director Mo Zhou places Puccini's iconic tragedy in the world of Japanese war brides.
- Onstage NOV 1-7, 2026
- Music by Giacomo Puccini
- Words by Luigi Illica & Giuseppe Giacosa
- Runtime: 3h including one 25m intermission
- Sung in Italian with projected English captions
- Featuring the Calgary Opera Chorus and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra
MADAMA BUTTERFLY HOUSE PROGRAM
BUTTERFLY TRANSFORMED
Like many acclaimed and well-loved operas, Madama Butterfly portrays stories and characters from cultures other than the creators’ own. While empathy for others remains an essential starting point for artistic creation and one of the hallmarks of opera’s musical immediacy, the European art form has also grappled with a history of misrepresentation and appropriation of non-Western cultures. As diverse creative voices come to the fore, new storytellers are reclaiming narratives, shifting agency, and transforming audiences’ understanding of these timeless works.
Without altering the original libretto or score, stage director Mo Zhou offers compelling solutions to the historically reductive “unrequited love” narrative crafted at the turn of the 20th century. By shifting the time period four decades forward, this production of Madama Butterfly gains a striking immediacy, especially in the 80th anniversary year of the bombing of Nagasaki.
In postwar Japan, approximately 45,000 Japanese women married American GIs, setting their hopes on a better life in an uncertain and rapidly changing world. Many immigrated to the United States, often pressured to assimilate into postwar American society; others were left behind, raising children alone in the shadow of occupation as outcasts of both worlds.
Zhou’s conception of Madama Butterfly invites us to reflect on these untold stories: how many women, like Cio-Cio-San, were left behind? How many children, like Sorrow, were abandoned between two nations, two identities, and two impossible dreams? In grounding Puccini’s tragedy within this historical reality, Zhou transforms what was originally built on exotic fantasy into something achingly human, a meditation on survival, displacement, and the illusion of the American Dream.
Led by a creative team of first-generation immigrant Asian women in America, this production deepens the backbone of Puccini’s music through dramaturgy that resonates with lived experience and historical truth. “This is not a love story,” Zhou says. “It’s a story of survival, and one we must keep telling, truthfully, intentionally, and with care.”
ARTISTS OF MADAMA BUTTERFLY
Stage Director | MO ZHOU
Conductor | JONATHAN BRANDANIC
Cio-Cio-San | YASKO SATO
Pinkerton | MATTHEW WHITE
Suzuki | NINA YOSHIDA NELSEN
Sharpless | PHILLIP ADDIS
Goro | JULIUS AHN
Sorrow | NELA PILECKI
Uncle Bonze | STEPHANO PARK
Yamadori / Imperial Commissioner | LUKA KAWABATA
Kate Pinkerton | ALESSIA VITALI (NOV 1 & 2) / KELSEY RONN (NOV 7)
Registrar | LUKE NOFTALL
Yakusidé | GEORGE THEODORAKOPOULOS
Cio-Cio-San's Mother | MARIA MILENIC
Cio-Cio-San's Aunt | KELSEY RONN
Cio-Cio-San's Cousin | KATELYN BIRD
Set Design | CHIKA SHIMIZU
Lighting Design | MARIE YOKOYAMA
Assistant to the Lighting Designer | CASSIE HOLMES
Costume Design | MARIKO OHIGASHI
Intimacy Director | ANASTASIA ST. AMAND
Original Production Costume Designer | KATHLEEN TROTT
Chorus Director & Artist-in-Residence | MARK MORASH
Head Coach | EMILY HAMPER
Répétiteur | EVAN MOUNCE
Chorus Répétiteur | JACK OLSZEWSKI
Stage Manager | SHELBY-JAI FLICK
Assistant Stage Manager | KATE PALLESEN
Assistant Stage Manager | JENNIFER YEUNG
Head of Props | KATE GREGGERSON
Head of Wardrobe | HEATHER MOORE
Head of Hair and Wigs | FRANCA VACCARO
Head of Makeup | GAIL KENNEDY
Director of Production | CODY STADEL
Production & Facility Coodinator | BRETT JOHNSON
Projected English Titles | SARAH JANE PELZER
Titles Operator | NICOLE BERGEN