Puccini: Madama Butterfly (Glyndebourne, 2019, Directed by: Miskimmon)

Behind exotic sonorities and unforgettable melodies, Puccini's seductive score for Madama Butterfly conceals a searing tragedy that strikes the listener straight in the heart. It is a classic love story that never moves, a tragic romance that sweeps one up in all its intensity. The opera, which combines authentic Japanese music with lush European harmonies and orchestrations, is an irresistible fusion of East and West. Puccini's opera made its Glyndebourne Festival debut only in 2018. For this production, director Annilese Miskimmon created a thought-provoking staging that updates the original turn-of-the-century setting to the 1950s and confronts the darker political and emotional currents of a work that acknowledges that there are some barriers too high to be overcome by love. This love story has no chance of a happy ending.