The opera was directed by Gabriele Ribis in an original and contemporary interpretation, placing the opera in the nineteen-fifties, after the devastation of Nagasaki and Hiroshima by the atomic bombs and it is here that the story unfolds.
Madame Butterfly
By Giacomo Puccini
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"...Mezzo soprano Anna Peshes...made for an outstanding Suzuki... Yasmine Levi-Ellentuck played Cio Cio San... in beautifully chiseled vocal lines... wondefully controlled pianissimo singing and refined...acting...Under the baton of Maestro Omer Arieli, the Tel Aviv Soloists Ensemble played with vitality and attention to detail..."
Pamela Hickman
Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton, an officer in the American Naval fleet based in Nagasaki, marries a fifteen year old Japanese girl, Cio Cio San – the butterfly lady – and calls her “Butterfly”. He is called back to the United States and does not intend to return to his wife, who patiently waits for him, believing in his love for her, together with their son who was born after Pinkerton’s departure. After three years, Pinkerton returns to Nagasaki with his American wife, to take back his son to America. Butterfly, thoroughly anguished and in despair, takes leave from her son in a heartbreaking scene and in the end, takes her own life.
Participants
Music Director and Conductor: Omer Arieli
Artistic Adviser and Stage Director: Gabriele Ribis
Orchestra: The Tel Aviv Soloists Ensemble
Choirmaster: Oded Shomrony
Producer: Lia Lerer
Assistant Stage Director: Ari Teperberg
Stage Manager: Lee Teperberg-Kanai
Costume Design: Maor Zabar
Costumes: Tal Markovitch Bar On, Hamatferia
Stage Design: Eli Kaplan-Wildmann
Lighting Designer: Adi Shimroni
Lighting: Joy Sound and Light
Makeup: Lilach Ofek Ahai
Makeup Assistant: Nitzan Ti
Projections: Lustig Video Projections
Graphic Designer: Beki Bubli, Bigraphics
Public Relations: Anat Meromi, Meromi Public Relations
Marketing and Advertisement: Bimot
Rehearsal Pianist: Irina Rozhneva
Video Production: Snir Katzir
Photographs: Tal Sofia Braniss
Public Relations Photographs: Uri Rubinstein
Programme: Fern Braniss and Ruth Schiller
Surtitles: Oshri Segev
Roles:
Cio-Cio San (Madame Butterfly): Yasmine Levi-Ellentuck
Lieutenant B. F. Pinkerton: Avi Klemberg
Sharpless: Marcello Lippi
Suzuki: Anna Peshes
Goro: Ron Silberstein
The Commissioner: Shmuel Berlad
Yamadori: Gilad Rosenberg
The Bonzo: Ehoud Ya’ari
Kate Pinkerton: Noa Hope
Young Dolore (Sorrow): Tom Carmeli
The Mother: Maria Liyubman
The Cousin: Yael Haleli
The Aunt: Maya Cohen
Yakuside: Daniel Linker
Choir Members: Einat Avraham, Daniel Arad, Michael Bechner, Tom Cohen, Maria Droganov, Ron Rosenfeld, Lewis Sacks, Batia Shiner, Yael Shrieber
