Madame Butterfly at the Mahalia Jackson

Say those words "Madame Butterfly" and most people think opera, and there’s a good reason for that. Madame Butterfly is the most popular opera in the repertoire, the most performed, and (for many people) the one opera non-opera goers want to see. New Orleans Opera is getting ready to test that theory when it presents Puccini’s most memorable opera at the Mahalia Jackson Theater. A young Japanese woman’s uncompromising love results in both her greatest joy and greatest sacrifice in this passion-filled drama. It's a chance to experience Puccini’s soaring melodies, beautiful choruses, and the lush orchestration that makes Madame Butterfly simultaneously romantic and heart wrenching.

New Orleans Opera is going one step further, adapting the classic to tell the story from a female perspective, as well as from the viewpoint of those of Asian heritage living in a white European culture. 

“For our new production of Madame Butterfly, we felt it was important to give agency and artistic leadership to the very communities this opera affects the most,” said General and Artistic Director Clare Burovac. “We hope, by sharing the ongoing journey to finding deeper meaning in these works, that we can also discover together how they can still serve as powerful agents of change in our communities today.” 

Performances will take place at 7:30 pm Friday at 2:30 pm Sunday. Tickets start at $32. neworleansopera.org.