She spurns a marriage proposal from a wealthy Japanese man, certain of Pinkerton’s love and eventual return. Three years later, Cio-Cio-San is running out of money. “Throughout the first Act,” I told my wife at dinner while sipping my Sangiovese, “I was thinking, ‘Cad! Cad!'”Įventually, his ship departs, and he has the American consulate continue paying the rent. Meanwhile, he enjoys bliss with Butterfly. His long-term plan is to take an American wife. She is a geisha and comes with the house he leases, but he has the option to cancel the whole arrangement on a month’s notice.

When she “weds” B.F. Pinkerton, an American naval lieutenant, and converts to his religion, she is renounced and abandoned by her family. Madama Butterfly is also known in the opera as Cio-Cio-San.

The story occurs in Nagasaki, Japan at the turn of the 20th century. My wife and I talked over Madama Butterfly as we enjoyed a wonderful dinner at the Modello Italian Restaurant in Magnolia (see The whole event was my birthday gift to her. People have always liked beautiful tragedies. It now ranks #8 in the Operabase list of most-performed operas worldwide (see ). The final version of Madama Butterfly premiered in Paris, France on 28 December 1906-106 years ago-and premiered by Seattle Opera on 15 March 1966. The music just rips your heart. It’s too much.” In the back of my mind was the memory of a very similar feeling when we attended Puccini’s La Boheme in 2007 (see ). He gets too close, the way he writes about romantic love.

“No more Puccini!” I told my wife after the Seattle Opera’s performance of Madama Butterfly at McCaw Hall on 20 May. “He’s just too powerful.

o Special Trumpet Sound Effects–Part Two.

o Special Trumpet Sound Effects–Part One.

o Know Your Horn: The Brassy, Sassy Trumpet.

o Do You Pass the Trumpeter's Breathing Test?.o Washington Music Educators Association.o Audition Materials – All-State & All-Northwest Honor Groups.

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