Love, loss and honor are central themes in Giacomo Puccini’s "Madama Butterfly" — an opera taking to the stage in San Diego once again.
“So this is one of Puccini's greatest operas,” said General Director of the San Diego Opera David Bennett.
He says he's feeling a little bit anxious and tired, but overall is excited.
“Many people think of Puccini as the greatest opera composer, so it's very well known. It came after two other very big successes — 'La Boheme' and 'Tosca' and this is a very different world,” Bennett said.
KPBS was able to get access to a rehearsal inside the nearly 3,000 seat San Diego Civic Theatre to see what goes into creating such a complex performance.
“This is Puccini who was an Italian, end of the 19th century, very beginning of the 20th century, writing about Asian culture from his Italian perspective,” Bennett said. “The way he sets the score is vastly different from what he composed before, it's actually very highly influenced by actual French composition, which is very delicate.”
The story focuses on a young woman who supports herself as a geisha after her disgraced father takes his life.
The performance stars soprano Corinne Winters, who plays that woman – Cio-Cio San.
“This character, for her very young years, is highly intelligent and also very naïve. She is very feisty and angry, and at the same time, has so much grace, politeness and courtesy,” Winters said.
The soprano has played this role three times before in other parts of the world and said Cio-Cio San is a vulnerable character that’s emotionally and musically difficult to tackle.
“Having to sing this intense, complicated opera from a musical standpoint and the amount of stamina and technique required to sing a piece like this — with those two factors kind of always at play — is a lot,” Winters said.
The San Diego Symphony will guide the show through orchestra and the stage will be adorned with Japanese-inspired decor to match the story line, said the director of "Madama Butterfly," Jose Maria Condemi.
“It's a traditional setting of the piece — in 1904, 1906. And it's visually very striking because of all those levels,” Condemi said of the raked stage. “If you sit in different seats in the house you get a very different experience of it.”
Bennet said they took extra care to be culturally accurate in the smallest details.
“We are making sure that we are doing everything with real cultural awareness and cultural knowledge, down to the way everyone moves, the way everyone steps, the way you fold your garments, where the obi (Japanese sash) actually sits,” he said.
In "Madama Butterfly," Cio-Cio-San — also known as Butterfly — falls desperately in love with an American naval officer and marries him.
But he leaves her for three years and while he's gone, she bears his son. Meanwhile, he takes an American wife. This leads to an unraveling of Butterfly's identity.
“She not only married an American in the early 20th century, but she rejected her own culture. And she was rejected in turn, so that creates a very dramatic conclusion to the piece,” Condemi said.
With such a powerful story that requires great acting and voice, Winters digs deep for inspiration from the world around her. She appreciates the depth of the opera.
“It shows each character as a multi-dimensional human with a journey and their light, I guess — the light side of their personality — and their demons. And each character has it,” Winters said.
This isn't the first time that the San Diego Opera has put on "Madama Butterfly," but it's a great opportunity for those new and seasoned to experience a show.
“It is a perfect piece for a newcomer to the opera because it's accessible, the music is sweeping and it really goes straight to your heart,” Condemi said.
The performances are sung in Italian with English and Spanish text projected above the stage. They take place Friday evening and Sunday afternoon at Civic Theater.
