Opéra de Paris: Madame Butterfly

Giacomo Puccini considered Madame Butterfly his most “sincere” and “expressive” work, and it was one which he never tired of listening to. This much-loved classic of the operatic repertoire returns to Paris’s Opéra Bastille for only eight performances, recounting the stirring, tragic story of a young Japanese woman named Cio-Cio San (played by Svetla Vassileva, known to Parisian audiences for her work in the Paris Opéra’s production of Francesca da Rimini) who is seduced, then abandoned and ultimately humiliated by an American officer stationed in Nagasaki.

Madame Butterfly chronicles the clash of two different cultures, namely the customs and traditions of Japan, and carefree America. The three-act opera with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa was originally based on the novella of the same title by John Luther Long.

Opéra Bastille: February 14–March 12, 7:30 p.m. Tel: +33 1 71 25 24 23. Tickets: €70-€180