Composer

Experience the bittersweet wonder of Puccini's beloved masterpiece once more in this glorious production from esteemed director Ellen Kent. Heading out on a final farewell tour in 2026, it's a mesmerizing and sumptuous affair that highlights Puccini's greatest score with spectacular sets and costumes, including a breathtaking Japanese garden.  One of the most popular works in the repertoire, prepare to be swept up in the story of a young Japanese woman and her heartbreaking relationship with a dashing American Naval Officer.

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Ellen Kent's Madama Butterfly

Sunderland Empire

This opera, which Puccini himself considered his favorite and best work, moves everyone who hears it. In the summer of 1900, Puccini saw David Belasco’s theater piece »Madame Butterfly« in a London Theater, and was indelibly touched. It was a tragic story of very human proportions, coupled with an old-fashioned dose of Far East exoticism. As Belasco did, Puccini set his opera in the present, in the year 1904, the year of its world premiere. The strict rules and customs of Japanese society are confronted by the western world, in the form of the American marine lieutenant Pinkerton. For him, his fictitious marriage with the young geisha Cio-Cio San, also called »Butterfly«, is nothing more than an exotic romantic adventure. For her, though, it is the chance of a lifetime: Fascinated by the notion of the different, freer world that her lover could give her, she’s ready to break with everything she’s ever known. She believes steadfastly that Pinkerton will return to her, even long after he has left Japan. And when he finally does return, after three years, it spells disaster.

Madama Butterfly

Oper Leipzig

In a hallmark of his partnership with the CSO, Riccardo Muti takes center stage to conduct selections from Verdi’s enthralling, passion-filled operas. The program also features a lineup of treasured Italian opera repertoire performed by internationally acclaimed singers and the Chicago Symphony Chorus.

An Opera Night with Riccardo Muti

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Extraordinary artists of The Glenn Gould School’s vocal program and the Royal Conservatory Orchestra present an Italian comedic double bill in Koerner Hall: Rossini's La cambiale di matrimonio and Puccini's Gianni Schicchi. Conducted by Gordon Gerrard and directed by Stephen Carr.

The Glenn Gould School Spring Opera: Serenata Italiana

The Royal Conservatory of Music

Featuring an impressive cast and accompanied by a live Orchestra numbering over 30 musicians.

The Alban Arena

Puccini first showcased his operatic voice through the orchestra alone with his Capriccio Sinfonico. Marking the start of his signature musical style, it blends the lyrical and dramatic qualities that later came to define his iconic operas.

The Cunning Little Vixen

MediaCityUK

Members of the QCSO present an intimate evening of expressive beauty from Beethoven’s elegant Sixth String Quartet to contemporary masterpieces by Caroline Shaw and Philip Glass.

Up Close with Blueprint

Figge Art Museum

Great Choral Symphony – Concert with the Singakademie Frankfurt (Oder)

Kleist Forum

Meet Cio-Cio-San — known as Madama Butterfly — a faithful but doomed geisha in love with B.F. Pinkerton. Everyone but Butterfly knows the Navy lieutenant will break her heart and ruin her life.

Opera newcomers will be swept away by the familiar melodies, gorgeous costuming, and colorful sets — and seasoned opera fans will thrill at this beautiful, thoughtful production from Lyric Opera’s own Matthew Ozawa that brings new dimension to an age-old story.

Lyric Opera House

Puccini’s final masterpiece gets the full POP treatment in this stunning new production of Turandot, set in a magical world of ice and snow—frozen, like the heart of its title character. Featuring real-life husband and wife 2024 Richard Tucker Award-winning tenor Clay Hilley as Calàf and POP favorite Sara Duchovnay as Liù, this production brings Puccini’s epic score to life with grandeur, grit, and plenty of high drama. In a kingdom ruled by riddles and fear, Turandot has vowed never to marry, punishing all who dare pursue her. But when the mysterious Prince Calàf answers her challenge, everything begins to change—including Turandot herself. Packed with soaring arias, a massive chorus, and the world’s most famous showstopper, “Nessun Dorma,” Turandot is opera at its most powerful. Performed at the Aratani Theatre, one of LA’s most beloved cultural venues located in the heart of Little Tokyo, this unique production with a fairytale twist promises to be unforgettable.

Turandot

Japanese American Cultural & Community Center

Back by overwhelming public demand, this award-winning Opera returns in a new production with exquisite sets including a spectacular Japanese garden and fabulous costumes including antique wedding kimonos from Japan.

Ellen Kent: The Farewell Tour - Madama Butterfly

New Victoria Theatre

Get ready for an opera of high-stakes drama, breathtaking spectacle, and one of the most legendary scores ever composed. Puccini’s final masterpiece, Turandot, comes to life in a production that honors the grandeur of its 1926 La Scala premiere while pushing boundaries with stunning visual technology. Seamlessly blending innovation with tradition, this epic tale is more immersive and electrifying than ever.At the heart of the story is the cold and enigmatic Princess Turandot, who tests her suitors with three impossible riddles—failure means death. But when the fearless Prince Calaf succeeds, the real challenge begins—not of intellect, but of love. Will he melt Turandot’s icy heart, or will fate take yet another victim?

Broward Center For The Performing Arts

Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County

Get ready for high-stakes drama, breathtaking spectacle and one of the most legendary scores ever composed. Puccini’s final masterpiece, Turandot, comes to life in a production that honors the grandeur of its 1926 La Scala premiere while pushing boundaries with stunning visual technology. Seamlessly blending innovation with tradition, this epic tale is more immersive and electrifying than ever.

Ziff Ballet Opera House

There is perhaps nothing simpler than La Bohème and yet nothing more moving: a young man and a young girl meet, fall in love, are separated by life and yet find each other again before a final farewell.

In this work, Puccini was able to create unforgettable images: Mimi entering, like a muse, into the poet's room, the love duet under the moon, the illuminated Grand Café Momus, the impossible farewells in the icy morning, death finally on a miserable bed.

La Bohème evokes what haunts us all: love that blazes and carries us to heaven, youth that flees, and time that destroys everything. In 1896, Puccini still had many masterpieces ahead of him, but perhaps he would never again find this clarity and splendor of melody.

La Bohème

Maison de la Culture Clermont-Ferrand

New Theatre Oxford

Madama Butterfly - Ellen Kent’s Farewell Opera Tour - featuring the Opera International Kyiv, Ukraine

Cliffs Pavilion

Sister Angelica and two lay sisters have been late for chapel. Angelica has already done her penance, so the mistress of the novices imposes one on the lay sisters. The Monitor then chides some of the other sisters for minor transgressions, but allows the nuns to have some relaxation time in the garden before they must return to their labors. They enjoy the sight of the late afternoon sunlight falling upon the fountain.

The sisters’ talk turns to their lingering desires for the worldly pleasures they used to enjoy. Sister Angelica denies that she has any such desires, but the others know that she is lying, for she longs for some news of her family. She has been at the convent for seven years without hearing from them, and the sisters believe that she is a princess who was sent to the convent as a punishment for some mysterious transgression.

Their speculations are interrupted when a nursing sister rushes in and asks Sister Angelica, who is expert in such matters, for an herbal remedy to treat another nun who has been stung by a wasp. Then two alms-collecting nuns arrive with provisions. One of them announces that a rich-looking carriage is standing outside the convent gate. Angelica becomes anxious and asks her to describe the carriage in detail, but the nun can only say that it was very fine. The convent bell rings; Angelica begins to pray. The other nuns pity Angelica’s anxiety and tell her that they hope it is a visit from her family.

Suor Angelica + Concert

OLPH Catholic Academy of Brooklyn

Music Hall proudly launches its Classic Opera Series with Puccini’s masterwork — Turandot In-Concert — a sweeping musical experience that brings grand opera to the heart of Detroit.

Turandot in Concert

Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts

Six young people eke out a living with precarious work: Poet Rodolfo works at a newspaper and dreams of his breakthrough as a playwright. Marcello paints advertisements on walls. Philosopher Colline lives off private lessons. Musician Schaunard tinkers his way through bars. Mimì embroiders flowers on jewelry ribbons. Musetta keeps wealthy lovers.

La bohème

Halle Opera House

This operatic tour de force features highlights from two of the greatest operas ever written—Bizet’s Carmen and Puccini’s Turandot—in an electrifying concert with acclaimed Canadian tenor David Pomeroy,  soprano Krista da Silva, soprano Andrea Hill, mezzo-soprano Barbara King and a stellar cast from the Calgary Concert Opera Company.

An Afternoon at the Opera

Arts Commons

La Bohème, composed by Giacomo Puccini, is one of the most beloved and frequently performed operas in the world's operatic repertoire. Premiered on February 1, 1896, at the Teatro Regio in Turin, under the baton of the young Arturo Toscanini, the work was enthusiastically received and established Puccini as one of the greatest composers of his time. Along with Madama Butterfly and Tosca, La Bohème holds a special place in the public's hearts for its moving humanity and the intensity of its emotions.

Riberas del Guadaira Auditorium Theatre

Calderón Theater

Alicante Main Theatre

Social Theatre, Basauri

Great Falla Theatre

Jean Alary Theater

Auditorium & Convention Center The Batel

House of Culture

Great Theatre of Elche

Serrano Theatre

Buero Vallejo's Theatre

Huesca Congress Palace

Theater Le Blanc-Mesnil

Breton Theatre, Logroño

Margarita Lozano Auditorium

La Colonne Theater

Massy Opera

Mira Theatre

Adolfo Marsillach Auditorium Theatre

Serantes Cultural Hall

Teulada Auditorium

Boulevard theatre

Torrent Auditorium

Municipal Theater of Torrevieja

Olympia Theatre, Valencia

Principal Theatre, Zaragoza

Liverpool Empire Theatre

Puccini's most beloved opera and one of the most performed in the repertoire, La bohème takes us through the streets of the Latin Quarter in 19th century Paris when the poor embroideress Mimì has a fateful chance encounter with the poet Rodolfo. Laugh and cry as a group of friends struggle and celebrate through the Bohemian lifestyle and experience the heartbreak of a lover's impending demise.

Sarasota Opera House

Beethoven & Bohème

Northern Virginia Community College - Alexandria Campus

The George Washington Masonic National Memorial

This concert, in the form of a musical tour of Europe, begins in Italy with the Preludio sinfonico, which Puccini composed while studying at the Milan Conservatory. This visionary and spirited score heralds future masterpieces. Pablo Sainz-Villegas, one of the greatest guitarists of our time, continues the journey in Spain with Rodrigo's famous Concierto de Aranjuez.

La Saint-Valentin avec Roméo et Juliette

Grand Théâtre de Québec

Celebrate Valentine’s Day with an evening of luscious symphonic classics offering some of the most romantic melodies ever written. The concert features the sensuous slow movements from three of the finest concertos for piano and Richard Addinsall’s Warsaw Concerto, as well as love themes from silver screen masterpieces by Ennio Morricone, James Horner and John Williams Also included is Wagner’s musical love letter and Tchaikovsky’s passionate overture to Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet. Make sure you make a date and treat a loved one!

Smooth Valentine Classics Romantic classics for a special evening

Lighthouse, Poole's Centre for the Arts

Senbla presents Ellen Kent’s Farewell Opera Tour featuring Opera International Kyiv, Ukraine, with Highly-Praised Soloists and Full Orchestra.

The Alhambra Theatre

A nation is cowed by its princess. Turandot, beautiful and fascinating representative of a royal dynasty, presides over a gruesome ritual: only her marriage to a suitor will bring an end to the violence, but no would-be bridegroom has yet managed to solve the riddles. The same old spectacle plays out, ending in yet another execution, until Calaf, the son of a deposed ruler from a foreign land, unexpectedly answers the riddles correctly. He then turns the tables on Turandot, forcing her to answer his own question if she wants to steal out of her obligation. Puccini’s times are changing rapidly, the art world is going through drastic transformation and new, abstract forms are being coined to reflect modern-day experience. And the composer, in his early 60s, is again trying to break new ground.

Deutsche Oper Berlin

The relationship between Cio-Cio-San, called »Butterfly«, and US American marine officer Benjamin F. Pinkerton begins as a proforma wedding – with unexpected consequences: the young Japanese woman cuts herself off from her family, hoping to leave her impoverished origins behind; Pinkerton, on the other hand, despite his overwhelming desires, doesn’t feel committed to this »provisional marriage«. When he’s ordered home Cio-Cio-San’s left behind, expecting his baby. She waits unwaveringly for his return; her only rock is her faithful servant Suzuki. But when Pinkerton’s ship re-docks in Nagasaki, the illusion shatters: He married another woman in America. When Butterfly realises they intend to take her child as well, she sees no other way out; she commits ritual suicide, as her father before her. Doing away with superficial clichés, the director R.B. Schlather focuses on the human tragedy, for which Puccini, Master of Melody found such heart-rending music.

Oper Frankfurt

Beijing, in a fairytale setting: At the imperial court, Princess Turandot has made her own marriage a law: Anyone wishing to marry her must answer three riddles correctly; anyone who fails is executed. When a stranger appears, he decides to take on the challenge. He is the only one who succeeds in solving the riddles and, in turn, gives the princess a task: If Turandot can reveal his name by dawn, he is prepared to renounce her hand and die.
Behind the murderous brutality of Turandot's law and her cold-blooded rejection of all suitors lies a deep transgenerational trauma. These unsolvable tasks serve only as self-protection: An ancestor was brutally abused and murdered by her husband. Jakob Peters-Messer's production examines Puccini's fairytale opera for this deep psychological cause and simultaneously reveals the inherent ambivalence of tragedy and grotesque comedy.

Staatstheater Hannover

Described by Strad Magazine as being, “vigorous, extrovert and emphatic players with a vitality all their own,” the Nisaika Quartet’s origins go back to the 1980s at the Curtis Institute of Music. Four chamber-music-hungry friends and classmates, coached by Karen Tuttle and Felix Galimir, went on to win Deuxième Prix at the 8e Concours International de Quatuors à Cordes, a moment described as one of the greatest adventures of their musical lives. After finishing their undergraduate studies, this group of tenacious young musicians went their separate ways to pursue graduate and job opportunities, but always found themselves connected through the years. Now, after more than four decades and four illustrious careers as performers and pedagogues, the Nisaika Quartet reunites for a very special performance, featuring works by Webern, Beethoven, Puccini and Brahms.

Masterful Strings: Nisaika 2.0- String Quartet Reunion with Friends

The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center

The U.S. Forces show their presence world-wide: American Lieutenant Pinkerton has an affair in Nagasaki with Cio-Cio San, "Madame Butterfly". He sails away. She then has his child. Three years later he returns to Japan – accompanied by his American wife and wants to take the child with him. Butterfly commits suicide.

Max-Joseph-Platz

Immerse yourself in Puccini’s timeless masterpiece, Madama Butterfly, a story of hope, longing, and ultimate sacrifice. With some of the most exquisite arias and tender duets ever composed, this deeply moving opera follows the young geisha Cio Cio San as she dreams of a life of love with Pinkerton, an American naval officer. As the tale unfolds, betrayal and heartbreak cast their shadow, leading to an unforgettable climax. Experience an operatic journey of unmatched beauty and emotional depth that has captivated audiences for generations.

Phoenix Convention Center

Linda Ronstadt Music Hall

Puccini’s masterpiece is beloved for a reason! La Bohème captures the raw beauty of youth, love, and loss in artistic Paris. Puccini’s lush score paints a portrait of passion that flickers brightly before fading into silence.

We return to St. Rogers Depot to transform the event venue into a fully realized theatrical space. By doing so, we not only maintain high production standards but also elevate the audience experience through amenities such as a VIP Lounge, attentive service, and convenient parking.

St. Rogers Depot

A love story of passion, sacrifice, and heartbreak, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly delivers some of the most exquisite music ever written. The young geisha Cio-Cio-San gives up everything for love, only to face devastating betrayal in a story that unfolds with haunting beauty and emotional depth. With achingly beautiful lyricism and gut-wrenching tragedy, one of opera’s most powerful productions will stay with you long after the final note.

Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts

A program of legendary figures—both real and imagined—features the Annapolis debut of two-time Grammy-winning soprano Angel Blue performing a selection of operatic works. Known for her radiant voice and commanding stage presence, Blue has graced the world’s leading opera houses. In this special performance, she shares her extraordinary artistry with ASO audiences, including a repertoire of extraordinary and timeless pieces, making this an experience you don’t want to miss!

Legends

Maryland Hall

This passionate program features Bernstein’s iconic Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, John Williams’s Cello Concerto with the brilliant Oliver Herbert, and Tchaikovsky’s timeless Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture. Plus, enjoy romantic opera favorites sung by the incredible Sarah Beckham-Turner. A perfect date night or a beautiful evening out!

Romance at the Symphony

Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts

The Future is Now

Aurora University

In 2020, the National Opera in Warsaw celebrated the 55th anniversary of the reconstruction of its historic home on Teatralny Square. The ambitious project of raising the theatre from ruins was completed 20 years after the war, with the grand opening of the modernized Grand Theatre on November 19, 1965. Shortly thereafter, the Warsaw Opera ensemble, including its distinguished choir, moved in from its temporary home on Nowogrodzka Street.

Chorus Opera

Teatr Wielki - Polish National Opera

Get out of the way The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Here comes the original Italian Spaghetti Western!  Puccini’s follow-up to his operatic masterpiece Madame Butterfly sets its exciting tale in the American Wild, Wild West, and is filled with all the fantastic music the composer is famous for.

Set during the California Gold Rush, this unique opera features passionate arias, blazing orchestra colors, and hair trigger excitement as the Wild West comes alive.

The Girl of the Golden West

Belmont University

Before Giacomo Puccini began composing La Bohème , which became one of the most frequently performed operas in the world, he was planning an opera about the life of Buddha. At the same time, he was drawn to the eroticism of La She-Wolf , set in Sicily. He was dissuaded from this latter project by Wagner's stepdaughter, Liszt's granddaughter, who was horrified by the story's intense brutality. With the help of the seasoned librettists Luigi Illica and Giovanni Giacosa, Puccini embarked on a free adaptation of Scenes from the Life of the Bohemians , a celebrated book by Henry Murger that unvarnishedly depicts the miserable existence of the Parisian "artistic proletariat." The book captivated me immediately. I felt like part of a family: freshness, youth, passion, gaiety, tears shed in silence, a love that gives joy and demands suffering. There are people, feelings, and heart. But above all, there is poetry, divine Poetry ," Puccini enthused, finding in Murger many familiar experiences. After the success of Manon Lescaut (1892), he was able to buy a villa in Torre del Lago, but he still remembered the hungry and cold student years he had spent in Milan.

This double bill features two of Puccini’s beloved works: Suor Angelica is a deeply moving spiritual drama set to Puccini’s most beautiful music. Gianni Schicchi offers a comedic take on family rivalry and greed.

Suor Angelica & Gianni Schicchi

Blumenthal Performing Arts Center

Come in from the cold and join the Rochester Symphony String Quartet for a casual concert in the warmth of candlelight at the beautiful Historic Chateau Theatre. Musicians will perform some of their favorite chamber music selections along with commentary. To further warm your spirits, Bitter and Pour will provide mulled wine and seasonal cocktails/mocktail for purchase.

Cold Weather, Warm Music

Peace Plaza

When the revolutionary and painter Mario Cavaradossi secretly attempts to help a political fugitive to escape the city of Rome, his lover, the famed singer Floria Tosca, believes he is cheating on her with another woman. Her jealousy is exploited by Scarpia, the unscrupulous chief of police, in order to help him capture Cavaradossi. Scarpia then makes Tosca an offer: if she gives herself to him for one night, he will release her lover.

Tosca

Bebelplatz

Cultures collide in Puccini’s poignant tale of a loyal geisha and a callous American naval officer whose fleeting romance leaves only devastation behind. In an exciting casting coup, three of today’s leading sopranos make their Met role debuts as Cio-Cio-San in a single season: Ailyn Pérez, Sonya Yoncheva, and Elena Stikhina. Tenors SeokJong Baek, Adam Smith—in his Met debut—and Matthew Polenzani co-star as Pinkerton in Anthony Minghella’s production, an “inspired vision” (The New York Times) that has become a classic.

Lincoln Center

Three riddles must be solved by anyone who wants to marry the beautiful and ice-cold Princess Turandot. Anyone who fails them will be punished with death. But Prince Kalaf, who is unknown in the kingdom, passes the trial. Turandot desperately searches for a way to escape marriage to the much-hated man... With “Nessun dorma”, Puccini created one of the most famous tenor arias in opera literature. For the Taiwanese director Huan-Hsiung Li, Puccini's opera is a fairy tale, which he tells in the form of a dream that drifts back to the ancient Yuan dynasty.

Turan­dot

Theater Duisburg

German Oper am Rhein

Puccini Madama Butterfly 2026

Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center

If any opera can break your heart, it surely is Madama Butterfly, the story of an innocent young Japanese girl, who — as her nickname foreshadows — is crushed by one of opera’s most callous cads, naval officer Lieutenant Pinkerton, who promises her a forever love. She is willing to give up her family and her religion to become a good “American” wife. From the ecstatic love duet on their wedding night, to the famous “humming chorus,” as she and her servant Suzuki await Pinkerton’s return, to the anguish of her suicide to preserve her honor — this deeply moving opera will resonate long after the last note has sounded. Performed by a star-studded cast of singers, orchestra and chorus, led by Luisi, a masterful opera conductor, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly is this season’s stunning opera in concert.

Puccini’s Madama Butterfly

A bucket list of favorite travel destinations is truly timeless. In this vibrant New Year's concert, Casco Phil charts a musical Grand Tour through Europe's major cultural capitals. The ensemble follows in the footsteps of generations of young travelers who, between the 17th and 19th centuries, embarked on exclusive journeys through the continent to soak up the best of its art and culture.

New Year's Concerts – The Grand Tour

Cultuurcentrum Ter Dilft

Sint-Laurentiuskerk

Municipal Theater Mechelen

The Velinx

During the Twelfth Night weekend, Norrlandsoperan" class="css-u850">Norrlandsoperan opens its doors for a glittering, high-class opera gala with carefully selected treats for opera connoisseurs and beginners alike. Swedish rising star Rebecka Wallroth makes her debut at Norrlandsoperan and as the male counterpart we hear the well-known tenor Per Lindström.

The evening begins in the good spirit of La Scala with Italian splendor. Rebecka Wallroth sets the tone with the famous Rossini aria “Una voce poco fa” from The Barber of Seville followed by the duet “Un soave non so che” from Cinderella by the same composer. This is followed by another soprano number from the bel canto repertoire, this time from Bellini’s opera I Capuleti ei Montecchi . The first set is rounded off in grand style by Per Lindström with Puccini’s beloved tenor arias “E lucevan le stelle” from Tosca and “Che gelida manina” from La Bohème.

Thirteenth Day Concert

Norrlandsoperan

Puccini’s Madama Butterfly cannot accept that her great love is doomed to end in heartbreak.

Semperoper Dresden

The «Japanese tragedy» by Giacomo Puccini shows how the American naval officer Pinkerton embraces Japanese culture, marrying Cio-Cio-San, a young geisha, for the duration of his stay. When he later returns with his «real» wife to take the child he had with Cio-Cio-San back to his homeland, the young woman is left with only one way out. With his ambitious composition, Puccini combined Eastern and Western motifs, producing one of his most successful operas at the start of the 20th century. Director Ted Huffman brings the opera to the stage in stunningly beautiful images and with great narrative tension.

Zurich Opera House

A sparkling New Year's celebration with Martyn Brabbins and guests! 

With glitter and champagne we celebrate the new year atMalmö Live Concert Halland hearMalmö Symphony Orchestrashine with sparkling virtuosity.  

New Year's Gala 2025

Malmo Live Concert Hall

Depending on the demand for their work, the penniless poet Rodolfo and his three witty artist friends live either in destitution or in the lap of luxury, squandering their money. When their neighbour Mimì appears in their garret one day, Rodolfo falls in love with the fragile young woman at first sight. But in the face of Mimì’s illness, the struggling artists are caught up in harsh reality.

Their relationship goes through ups and downs as they share the joys and challenges of an artist's life with their friends Marcello, Musetta, Schaunard and Colline. But tragic circumstances and the poverty of the times put their love to the test. A timeless story of love, loss and the pursuit of beauty.

Vienna State Opera

Heartache, heartbreak, the whole nine yards – four starving artists – love in a shabby attic loft – the swank boulevards where people live life with a capital "L", but Mimi is destined to die. Her tiny hand: ice cold! Otto Schenk's incredibly opulent, eternally valid production continues to fascinate audiences. All of Paris is magically transported onto the stage here.  So beautiful you could cry!

In 1853, the US battle fleet forced Japan to open its ports and enter into business with America. “The vigorous pressing of America’s handshake given kindly, but offered with zeal and capable of both striking and embracing at the same time – rocked the isolation of the Japanese and made them sensitive for their relationship towards the rest of the world“, according to the recollection of Captain M. C. Perry, then commander of the fleet. Puccini himself never visited Japan, but with his “Japanese tragedy“ about the geisha Cio-Cio-San and her love for American Naval officer Pinkerton, he created an affecting testimony for any form of one-sided cultural transfer. By choosing the “American way of life“ Cio-Cio-San accepts a cut-off from her past and her cultural traditions, but is left behind, pregnant and full of hope for the future which is finally cruelly dashed.

Stuttgart Opera

A delightful collection of your favorite Christmas carols and light classics, including music by Johann Strauss, Bizet, Puccini, Mancini, Sousa and others. Soprano Kristin Vogel returns to celebrate the season with inspiring holiday songs and famous operatic arias. Acclaimed for her powerful lyric voice and onstage intensity, Soprano Kristin Vogel has been lauded for roles that require dramatic passion and sensitive musicality, such as Puccini’s Tosca, Mimi in La Bohème and Donna Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Performing regularly in Europe and the United States, she divides her time between Vienna and the Pacific Northwest.

Holiday Pops

Edmonds Center For the Arts

“Have you tortured me enough?”
Floria Tosca lives entirely for music and her love for the artist Mario Cavaradossi. When Cavaradossi is sentenced to death for his political activism against an inhumane regime, the singer too is on the brink. The jealous Baron Scarpia tries to blackmail Tosca: If she wants to save her lover from execution, she must give herself to Scarpia. Tosca pretends to accept the deal – and stabs Scarpia. But the path to freedom is deceptive. Scarpia's power extends beyond death.
In hardly any other opera are personal passion and political arbitrariness so closely intertwined and yet so cruelly exposed as in Giacomo Puccini's Tosca from 1900. The relentless reckoning with abuse of power and machinations, coupled with a deeply moving love story, continues to electrify audiences today, with a score that combines gripping drama and nerve-wracking tension with moments of enchanting beauty. Arias like Tosca's "Vissi d'arte" and Cavaradossi's "É lucevan le stelle" are not without reason considered icons of Italian vocal art.

Lieutenant Pinkerton is attached to an American ship currently moored in Nagasaki harbour. He has been courting a 15-year-old geisha girl named Cio-Cio-san, known as Butterfly, who is from a poor but genteel family and takes love very seriously. Pinkerton wants to enter into a “time-limited marriage” – not uncommon between European men and geishas at the time – and is even being helped by Goro, the marriage agent, to find a cottage in which they can spend their honeymoon. The US consul, Sharpless, warns him against such a step, but Pinkerton brushes him off and even toasts the day when he will take an American to be his “real” wife.

Madame Butterfly

On December 10, 1895, the “Club La Bohème” met for the first time. The club – an irreverent artist's guild of literary types and painters – reminded Giacomo Puccini of his years both as a student and as a bohémien. While his friends drank wine and played cards, Puccini composed. One day, he suddenly cried out from his spot at the piano "Quiet, boys! I've finished!" Shortly thereafter, the full score of this legendary opera was finished, and the show, with its wonderful love story between Mimi and Rodolfo, was on stage. Without ever visiting Paris, Puccini captured the city's atmosphere, from the flair of its cafes to the bleak frost of a winter's day. His clear characterization of the opera's protagonists and their sense of emptiness sets the characterizations of desperation and loss, not to mention the opera's central theme of love. In the end the characters are even more lost, in doubt and alone.

Cio-Cio-San, on the other hand, takes the marriage very seriously. She converts to the Christian faith and accepts the break with her family. Pinkerton returns to the USA.

Hilarity and glorious music abound in this Puccini one-act comedy as the Donati family’s grief over their “Dear Uncle Buoso’s” death quickly turns to greed as they scheme to keep their inheritance. The cleaver and creative Gianni Schicchi comes to the rescue – or does he? Featuring the beloved aria “O mio babbino caro,” brilliant ensembles, and lively characters, it is no wonder that Gianni Schicchi a perennial favorite among opera lovers and newcomers alike.

Mason Opera presents, Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi

Hylton Performing Arts Center

Ruggero is young and wealthy, with his whole life before him. Magda is beautiful, worldly and wise – surely too wise to fall in love all over again? But amid the delights of belle-époque Paris, romance can be as intoxicating as champagne – and the heart, as they say, has its own reasons. In Puccini’s opera La rondine, they’ve never sounded sweeter.

Puccini's 'La rondine'

Barbican Centre

Ermonela Jaho stars in Puccini’s bittersweet romance, his opera La rondine, incorporating music that has not been heard this century. 

Ruggero is young and wealthy, with his whole life before him. Magda is beautiful, worldly and wise – surely too wise to fall in love all over again? But amid the delights of belle-époque Paris, romance can be as intoxicating as champagne – and the heart, as they say, has its own reasons. In Puccini’s opera La rondine, they’ve never sounded sweeter.

Inspired by Viennese operetta, La rondine is a bittersweet love story, set to some of the most romantic melodies that even Puccini ever wrote. But it’s also portrait of a world waltzing on the edge; a deeply moving study of innocence and (tender) experience. This one-off concert performance from the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Opera Rara stars Ermonela Jaho as Magda, and uses the newly restored final 1921 version of the score, incorporating music which is completely unknown today. Prepare to be seduced.

Puccini’s La rondine

Lieutenant Pinkerton has fallen in love with the geisha Cio-Cio-San, known as Madama Butterfly, and wants to marry her according to Japanese custom without entering into a permanent relationship. But Butterfly truly loves Pinkerton and has a child by him. For years she waits in vain for the lieutenant to return. When Pinkerton does return, he arrives with his new American wife to pick up the child, and Butterfly stabs herself with a dagger.

The 5,500 pipes of The Bridgewater Hall organ sing as Associate Artist Jonathan Scott performs a programme of some of the greatest music from the world of opera.

Jonathan Scott: The Organ at the Opera

The Bridgewater Hall

Rodolfo is a struggling poet burning his manuscripts to keep out the winter chill. Mimi is a fellow tenant with big dreams and a deadly illness. A chance meeting has them falling in love, but when you’re at the bottom of Parisian society, every day could be your last. 

Puccini’s blockbuster opera returns to our stage starring Janai Brugger as the sweet but suffering Mimi and Oreste Cosimo as the lovestruck Rodolfo, with Gihoon Kim and Erica Petrocelli as the on-again-off-again lovers Marcello and Musetta.

Resident Conductor Lina González-Granados leads Puccini’s transcendent score, awash in lavish Romanticism and gorgeous melodies. Director Brenna Corner helms a timeless production from Herbert Ross that the LA Times calls a “warm, nostalgic evocation of Paris in Puccini’s time.”

The Music Center

Heart-pounding drama, intense passion, and soaring melodies are a killer combination in this fateful day in the life of the diva Tosca.

In revolutionary Rome, the fiery, famous singer lives for art and love but finds herself in a life-and-death struggle when her lover, the painter Cavaradossi, is caught trying to protect a freedom fighter. Scarpia, the corrupt chief of police will stop at nothing to satisfy his lust for her. In this game of deadly political intrigue will Tosca submit to Scarpia’s desires or see her lover die? Can Scarpia’s evil reach from beyond the grave?

This spell-binding classic features some of Puccini’s best: “Vissi d’arte,” the opera’s most famous aria in which Tosca sings that she’s always lived her life for art and love; Cavaradossi’s “Recondita armonia”; Scarpia’s “Te Deum,” sung with self-satisfied villainy and madness; and “E lucevan le stelle,” Cavaradossi’s farewell to Tosca.

Centennial Concert Hall

It is the largest charity event of its kind organised by the German Red Cross in Germany: the festive opera gala of the Duisburg Red Cross is a highlight in the social life of the city and is in demand far beyond its borders. Soloists from the ensemble of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein and the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of chief conductor Vitali Alekseenok will once again present a glittering musical programme for the 19th edition, waiving their fees in aid of the DRK.

DRK Gala

CityPalais

From Paris with love comes a tale of friendship and romance that will make you laugh and cry in equal measure.

Composer

Giacomo Puccini

Events

Upcoming events

Sep 20, 2025 - Apr 20, 2026

Tosca · Wiener Staatsoper

Sep 23, 2025 - Jun 6, 2026

Turandot · The Metropolitan Opera

Oct 14, 2025 - Apr 28, 2026

Recital Rolando Villazon · Wiener Staatsoper

Oct 15, 2025 - Jun 24, 2026

Espresso concert · Oper Graz

Oct 21, 2025 - May 2, 2026

La Bohème · The Metropolitan Opera

Past events

Mar 23, 2026

Ellen Kent's Madama Butterfly · Sunderland Empire

Mar 20 - Apr 5, 2026

Madama Butterfly · Oper Leipzig

About

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