Madama Butterfly [2 Discs]

Robert Wilson mounted Giacomo Puccini's legendary operatic opus +Madame Butterfly on stage, in a 2003 production featuring the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and The Chorus of the Netherlands Opera. Starring Cheryl Barker as the title character, Madama Butterfly, (AKA Cio-Cio San) and Martin Thompson as B.F. Pinkerton, the opera sings the tragic song of the marriage of geisha Cio-Cio and soldier Pinkerton during military service (which requires the bride to renounce her faith and much of her family in favor of her new husband), Pinkerton's abandonment of his Japanese wife when his tour of duty ends, and her eventual suicide. Edo de Waart assumes musical direction.