67 - Madame Butterfly

Madama Butterfly, a fifteen-year-old geisha, has renounced her family and Japanese traditions for the love of and American naval officer who abandons her. Giacomo Puccini used this classic theme of a woman seduced and abandoned to create an opera with lush orchestration and burning lyricism. For Robert Wilson, this Japanese tragedy proves the ideal environment in which to display his signature formalism. He uses stylised acting and a stripped-down space.