EPSG:4326

Carmen

Teatro La Fenice

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

Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center

Il barbiere di Siviglia

Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi

Puccini was not the only composer to write an opera based on the Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger: Ruggero Leoncavallo also, in those same years, devoted an opera to the adventures, pranks, loves, and sorrows of the young bohemians of Paris. Time has favored Puccini’s version, which has remained firmly in the repertoire, while Leoncavallo’s version, premiered a year later in 1897, has been forgotten. Right here at the Regio, the birthplace of Puccini’s masterpiece, La bohème by Leoncavallo is presented again to the public in a rare staging, offering the chance to observe Marcello, Rodolfo, Colline, Schaunard, and a city teeming with life from a different perspective—one more faithful to Murger’s text and perhaps also more realistic, yet with music that does not forgo melodic effusion, a taste for pastiche, and the rapid succession of moments of playful lightness and dramatic intensity: all elements in which the composer of Pagliacci has few rivals. The female characters also include Eufemia, who joins the contrasting figures of Mimì and Musetta, portrayed respectively by Francesca Dotto and Anna Goryachova. Rodolfo and Marcello have vocal roles reversed compared to Puccini’s version: here the tenor is Marcello, performed by Matteo Lippi, while Rodolfo is the baritone Alessandro Luongo. With this production, Francesco Micheli offers a further interpretation of Leoncavallo’s theatrical universe and the bohemian story. From the podium, Andrea Battistoni continues his exploration of Italian musical verismo.

Alessandro Luongo

Events

Upcoming events

Oct 27 - Nov 22, 2026

La bohème · Teatro Regio Torino

Jan 7, 2027

Riccardo Minasi / Beethoven “Eroica” · Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia

Past events

May 24 - Jun 3, 2026

Carmen · Teatro La Fenice

9 - 11 Jan, 2026

Puccini’s Madama Butterfly · Dallas Symphony Orchestra

Future and recently performed repertoire

sharpless in Madama Butterfly by Puccini

Dallas Symphony Orchestra

Escamillo in Carmen by Bizet

Teatro La Fenice

Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia by Rossini

Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi di Trieste

Rodolfo in La bohème by Leoncavallo

Teatro Regio Torino

Singer in Song of the Sacrifice by Beethoven

Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia

About

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