Pittsburgh Opera’s’ Madama Butterfly’ Set to Fly at Benedum (Sat., 3/22/25)

MADAMA BUTTERFLY (opera) by Giacomo Puccini, with libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Pittsburgh Opera. March 22-30.

Pittsburgh Opera has given us some memorable modern restagings of classic operas, such as Mozart’s Don Giovanni done in film-noir style. This month, the company performs a restaging of Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly that is radical enough to invite new interpretations of the original. The arc of this tragic love story remains the same as written by librettists Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa in the early 1900s. A young Japanese woman marries a visiting U.S. Navy officer who jilts her after their wedding night, sailing off and eventually returning with an American girl as his new bride. The version you’ll see in Pittsburgh shifts the frame of the story. Here, the faithless man is a civilian in modern-day America, married to a hometown girl he’ll soon grow bored with. Seeking escape, he plays a VR game in which he takes on the avatar of a navy lieutenant pursuing romance with the lovely Cio-Cio-San (“Ms. Butterfly”)—and the rest unfolds from there. Conceived by a Japanese and Japanese-heritage creative team, this new Madama Butterfly is co-produced by Pittsburgh Opera and three other U.S. companies. Soprano Karah Son and tenor Eric Taylor sing the lead roles. 8 p.m. with pre-opera talk at 7 p.m. Benedum Center, 237 7th St., Cultural District. (M.V.)

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