Libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa,
after David Belasco`s stage version of a magazine story by John Luther Long
Performed in Italian
•Premiere at the Mariinsky Theatre: 4 January 1913, St Petersburg
•Premiere of this production:
29 May 1999,Teatr Wielki – Opera Narodowa, Warsaw (Poland);
27 October 2001, National Opera, Washington (USA);
new version: 18 March 2005, Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg
The Performance has three intermissions
Madama Butterfly (Madame Butterfly) is an opera in three acts (originally two acts) by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. The opera was based partly on a short story by John Luther Long, which was turned into a play by David Belasco; it was also based on the novel, Madame Chrysantheme (1887), by Pierre Loti.