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Opera Online - Madama Butterfly3


Welcome to Opera Online!

We continue our look at Giacomo Puccini's tragic Madama Butterfly, the first opera in our Sounds of Learning program for the 2009-2010 Season.

In our Clip of the Week, we'll take a look at Cio-Cio San's aria, Un bel dì, one of the most famous arias ever written. We'll compare two videos. The first is from the theatrical film version of the opera that we've already seen excerpts from with Chinese soprano Ying Huang as Cio-Cio San (Madama Butterfly). The second is a television performance by the legendary soprano Renata Tebaldi who was well known for her performances as the geisha.

In the opera at this point, Pinkerton returned to America three years ago, but has promised to come back to Butterfly. She dreams of the day that her husband will return to her. Butterfly clings to this belief with all her life. She tells her maid Suzuki what will happen on the day her husband returns - from seeing the smoke from his ship and the cannon salute in the harbor, to seeing him walk up the hill to their home and calling out her name. She wants Suzuki to believe in this dream as she does.

For the complete text to the aria, see page 26 of the Sounds of Learning guide.

Chinese soprano Ying Huang as Cio-Cio San from the 1995 theatrical film:


Italian soprano Renata Tebaldi in the role from an television broadcast.



Our Website of the week looks at the world of the geisha. Cio-Cio San is a 15 year old geisha, most other girls studying to become geisha didn't finish training until they were almost 20 years old! The book and films Memoires of a Geisha have spurred people's interest in geisha. Google the word geisha to find out more information about these female entertainers.


You're Invited to a Free Event!

We'll be doing a free preview of Madama Butterfly at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts' Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building, 128 N. Broad Street in Philadelphia on the corner of Broad and Cherry Streets. As part of the Opera Company's A Taste of Opera series, the event includes a recital of music from the opera as sung by soprano Evelyn Santiago and others. The event is on Sunday, October 4, 2009 from 2-3 PM at PAFA. All you need to do to reserve your spot is to email your name, address, and number in your party to outreach@operaphila.org. Hope to see you there!


Opera on the Radio this weekend

This weekend WRTI, 90.1 FM features the Gaetano Donizetti's comic opera L'elisir d'amore (The Elixir of Love) in a production from San Franciso Opera. This performance stars Mexican tenor Ramon Vargas as the lovestruck Nemorino. So tune your radio to 90.1 FM or listen online at 1:0oPM on Saturday, September 19th.


Don't forget to invite your friends to sign up to receive these alerts by emailing their name, school, and age to us at outreach@operaphila.org. Again, if you have suggestions of things you'd like to see, please let me know and I'll find a few clips as well.

Enjoy!

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