Stage Door News

Toronto: The Canadian Opera Company presents “Madama Butterfly” January 24-February 16

Thursday, November 28, 2024

One of the most beloved operas ever composed arrives at the Canadian Opera Company this winter, starring an internationally acclaimed cast led by renowned conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson. In this new-to-Toronto production from Tony Award-winning director Michael Grandage, revived at the COC by Jordan Lee Braun, a simple but stylized setting draws focus toward the characters’ intense emotional journey as unexpected love turns to heartbreaking tragedy. Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini runs for eight performances at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts on January 24, 26, February 1, 6, 8, 12, 14, and 16, 2025.

Madama Butterfly has moved generations of audiences with its evocative score; Puccini himself once described the work as “the most felt and most expressive opera that I have conceived.” With standout pieces that include the soaring Act 1 duet, “Vogliatemi bene,” and the famously longing soprano aria “Un bel di vedremo” in Act 2, music from the opera has permeated all facets of popular culture, inspiring the Broadway musical Miss Saigon and recently featuring in scenes from television’s House of Cards and The White Lotus.

Leading the COC Orchestra through one of Puccini’s most beautiful scores is renowned Canadian conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson. Wilson was at the podium for the COC’s 2021 digital concert recording of Madama Butterfly and, previously, debuted at the COC during the company’s 2017 production of Tosca; she says, “On the occasion of the Puccini Centennial in 2025, I can’t wait to reconnect with the COC’s outstanding orchestra and chorus, not to mention Toronto’s opera-loving audience.” Price Family Chorus Master Sandra Horst will guide the award-winning COC Chorus; Horst was recently honoured with an Opera Canada Ruby Award for her outstanding career contributions to Canadian opera.

Stepping into the title role is Eri Nakamura, the rising Japanese soprano “who has become a go-to interpreter of Cio-Cio San around the world” (OperaWire). Nakamura first performed as Butterfly as part of the COC’s 2021/2022 digital season and returns to the mainstage opposite Australian-Chinese tenor Kang Wang as Pinkerton. Wang first made his COC debut in 2023 as Rodolfo in La Bohème and brings his “stunning voice” (Limelight Magazine) to the role of the feckless U.S. naval officer whose passionate courtship does not translate into commitment.

Hyona Kim, lauded by The New York Times as a “vibrant and dark-toned mezzo-soprano,” will make her COC debut in the role of Suzuki alongside American bass-baritone Michael Sumuel who makes his COC debut as Sharpless, the U.S. Consul. Also joining the cast is Korean-American tenor Julius Ahn as the marriage broker Goro; Canadian baritone and Ensemble Studio alumnus Samuel Chan as both the Commissioner and Yamadori, the wealthy prince who wishes to marry Butterfly himself; Canadian baritone and COC Chorus member Gene Wu takes on the role of the Bonze, Butterfly’s uncle and a priest; and current Ensemble Studio soprano Karoline Podolak sings the part of Kate Pinkerton.

Madama Butterfly is sung in Italian and presented by the COC with English SURTITLES™.

Madama Butterfly is a co-production of Houston Grand Opera, Grand Théâtre de Genève and Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Regularly priced tickets for Madama Butterfly start at $45 for adults, with $28 tickets available for guests between the ages of 16 and 29 through the COC’s Opera Under 30 program. Tickets can be purchased online at www.coc.ca or by calling the Four Seasons Centre Box Office at 416-363-8231. For more information on booking student groups, standing room, and rush tickets, as well as other specially priced tickets available to young people under the age of 15, please visit www.coc.ca.

Photo: Patricia Racette as Cio-Cio San at the COC. © 2014 Michael Cooper.