2025-2026 OPERA AND BALLET SEASON
MADAMA BUTTERFLY
by Giacomo Puccini
Music pub: E. F. Kalmus & Co., New York
Conductor GIULIO PRANDI
Director ALBERTO TRIOLA
Set design EMANUELE GENUIZZI and STEFANO ZULLO
Costume Design SARA MARCUCCI
Lighting Design STEFANO CAPRA
Production of the Fondazione Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi di Trieste
Characters and performers
Madama Butterfly (Cio-Cio-San)
OLGA MASLOVA (2, 4, 10, 12 April)
VITTORIA YEO (3, 11 April)
F.B. Pinkerton
ANTONIO POLI (2, 4, 10, 12 April)
VASYL SOLODKYY (3, 11 April)
Sharpless
AMBROGIO MAESTRI (2, 4, 10, 12 April)
LUCA GALLI (3, 11 April)
Suzuki MICHELA GUARRERA
Goro ANDREA SCHIFAUDO
Prince Yamadori DARIO GIORGELÈ
The Bonze, Cio-Cio-San’s uncle YONGHENG DONG
Kate Pinkerton IRINA POPOVA
The Imperial Commissioner DANIELE CUSARI
Cio-Cio-San’s mother TERESA RANIERI
The cousin ELISA SERAFINI
The Official Registrar RICCARDO CORONA
Choir master PAOLO LONGO
Orchestra, choir and technical staff of the Fondazione Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi di Trieste
Madama Butterfly returns to the Teatro Verdi in Alberto Triola’s production, whose refined evocation of early twentieth-century japonisme and orientalism blends seamlessly with both the stage and the aesthetic reality of Trieste at the time: a mercantile capital looking towards the routes of the Far East. On the podium, Giulio Prandi makes his debut in this title. Internationally renowned above all for his work in early music, he draws on his long-standing association with the distinguished Ghislieri institution in Pavia. The cast features distinguished voices and, above all, a notable number of debuts, including that of the doyen of Italian baritones, Ambrogio Maestri, who takes on the role of Sharpless here before returning to it at the Puccini Festival next summer.
It is undeniable that the cultural milieu between the late nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth was profoundly shaped, in aesthetic terms, by the discovery of Far Eastern art: from London, where Puccini attended in 1900 a performance of Madama Butterfly by the American playwright David Belasco, to the Paris of Joris-Karl Huysmans and Marcel Proust, and on to Vienna with its Modernist movement. In this artistic movement, which spanned all the arts – from the visual to the musical – Trieste undoubtedly played a central role, thanks to its strong vocation as a cultural crossroads between East and West, a legacy still richly reflected today in the city’s collections. The Verdi Theatre is therefore the ideal setting for a production that seeks to celebrate the aesthetic of that milieu, creating a subtle interplay between the dramatic action and the city’s own history, while remaining true to the original source of Puccini’s fascination: despite having no knowledge of English, he was drawn to the work above all by the evocative power of Belasco’s orientalist staging.
A particularly innovative choice is to entrust the podium, for his debut in this title, to Giulio Prandi, already well known in Trieste as an outstanding interpreter of early and Baroque repertoire, yet still relatively little known for his approach to the great musical works from the nineteenth century onwards, a path he has already begun to explore beyond his work with the Ghislieri College in Pavia. It thus promises to be a moment of particular interest, as is often the case when a fresh perspective is brought to a well-known score, renowned above all for its unforgettable melodic lines, yet also remarkably complex in its assimilation of Japanese pentatonic scales, its use of whole-tone harmony, and its newly flexible treatment of recurring tonal patterns. Above all, it sustains the delicate aesthetic balance of a drama in constant evolution, in which a touching – at times almost comical – ingénue gradually assumes a truly tragic stature.
The cast brings together a succession of strong and distinguished voices, including the Russian soprano Olga Maslova in her role debut as Cio-Cio-San, alternating with the well-established interpretation of Vittoria Yeo. Vasyl Solodkyy also makes his role debut as Pinkerton, alternating with Antonio Poli. Ambrogio Maestri likewise appears for the first time as Sharpless, while Luca Galli, already well received in the role, completes the cast. The cast is completed by Michela Guarrera, making her debut as Suzuki, Andrea Schifaudo as Goro, Dario Giorgelé as Prince Yamadori, Yongheng Dong as the Bonze, Cio-Cio-San’s uncle, and Irina Popova as Kate Pinkerton.
A Thursday 2 April 2026, 8:00 p.m.
B Friday 3 April 2026, 8:00 p.m.
S Saturday 4 April 2026, 4:00 p.m.
C Friday 10 April 2026, 8:00 p.m.
E Saturday 11 April 2026, 4:00 p.m.
D Sunday 12 April 2026, 4:00 p.m.