MADAMA BUTERFLY

a  Japanese tragedy in three acts by Giacomo Puccini

libretto Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica after the play by David Belasco, based on the story “Madame Butterfly” by John Luther Long, written in 1898

conductor Bozhidar Bonev
director Nina Naydenova
scenic adaptation Slavcho Nikolov
scenography Boris Stoynov
costumes Tsevetanka Petkova-Stoynova
choreographer Boryana Sechanova
choir conductors Bogdana Popova, Mladen Stanev
adaptation and ballet coach Penka Dimotrova, Stanko Tanev

Cio-Cio-san (Madama Butterfly) – Linka Stoyanova
Suzuki – Daniela Dyakova
Kate Pinkerton –  Emiliya Ivanova
Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton –  Martin Iliev
Sharpless – Anton Radev
Goro, a matchmaker – Georgi Dinev
Prince Yamadori – Lyubomir Petkov
The Bonze, Cio-Cio-san’s uncle – Alexander Marulev
The Imperial Commissioner – Dobri Dobrev
Dolore, Cio-Cio-san’s child – Sava-Kalina Angelova

The first production of the opera “Madama Butterfly” on the Stara Zagora stage was on 21 March 1942 with conductor and director Dimitar Hristov. In 1945, for the first time Anna Tomowa-Sintow meets the audience in the role of the child. “I was hardly 4 years old when for the first time I performed before an audience”, says the world prima Anna Tomowa Sintow. In those years after the war, I was literally every evening with my mother (she was a choir-singer in the Opera of Stara Zagora) by the stage. Here I debuted in the role if Butterfly’s child, not to mention the travelling literally in the whole country. If you allow me, I will make one, probably too strong a comparison, but Stara Zagora for Bulgaria is something like Florence for Italy”.

This production was created for the opening of the Festival of the Opera and Ballet Arts – Stara Zagora in 2005, on the small stage of Drama Theater “Geo Milev”. During the season 2005/2006, at the invitation of Columbia Artist Management, the spectacle was performed in over 15 states in the USA. About the tour of the production, there were positive critiques and highly commendable responses by the American press and public. With a small interruption between 2010 and 2012, the production has always been part of the repertoire of the Stara Zagora Opera, enjoying an extraordinary public interest.

In her director’s reading, Nina Naydenova focuses around the image of the Dream and the rehabilitation of its meaning. In her opinion, only one Great Dream can relay the uniqueness of one life. In the time of the identical people – those who work and live according to certain, often planned and sketched aims – living conditions, professional, other ones, forced to follow the rules of their time, the only recognizable person is the one who pursues their Own Great Dream.

Duration: 2 hours and 30 minutes with one interval
Performed in Italian with titles in Bulgarian
Premiere: 26.04.2005 – Festival of the Opera and Ballet Arts, Stara Zagora