You may be seeing only cabbage white butterflies in your garden just now,
cabbage white butterfly
(pieris rapae)
worldwide
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Japanese swallowtail butterfly
(byasa alcinous)
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The opera will be sung in Italian with English supertitles at 7:30 p.m. June 11 and June 13, 3 p.m. June 15, all at Music Hall. (Note
The production, minimalist but suffused with color, is by Mark Lamos and Michael Yeargan for New York City Opera (seen on PBS' "Live from
The wrenching story, ultimately based on autobiographical sources about life in 19th-century
American naval officer B.F. Pinkerton (to be sung by tenor Frank Lopardo) hires a Japanese "marriage broker," (Steven Cole as Goro) to find a nubile young geisha (Cio-Cio San or Butterfly, age 15) willing to marry him. Unknown to Butterfly, it is a sham marriage and Pinkerton departs soon after the wedding night. Butterfly, who is deeply in love with Pinkerton, believes the marriage is real and waits patiently for him to return. Three years later he does, with his "real" wife Kate in tow. Crushed and now the mother of Pinkerton's son (Tyler Christopher Backer, 6, in a non-singing role), Butterfly commits suicide.
Butterfly's transformation from innocent child to disillusioned woman is the real meat of this operatic warhorse, which is filled with Japanese color (Puccini utilized familiar Japanese tunes) and potent drama. Lamos will direct, with conductor Edoardo Müller in the pit.
netted mountain moth (semiothisa carbonaria)
Scottish highlands
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Looking at Donizetti’s “Lucie de Lammermoor,” which takes place at 7:30 p.m. June 26 and 28 at Music Hall, semiothisa carbonaria, or the netted mountain moth, a species of Lepidoptera native to the Scottish highlands, has symbolic resonance to the opera’s ill-fated heroine.
Who could be more “netted” than poor Lucy, forced by deceit her brother to marry someone she does not love, then denounced by her true flame Edgar who doesn’t understand the situation?
“Lucie de Lammermoor” is the 1839 French revision of Donizetti’s vastly popular “Lucia di Lammermoor.” Based on “The Bride of Lammermoor” by Sir Walter Scott and set in
The villain is Lucy’s brother Henry, who tricks Lucy into an advantageous (for him) marriage by presenting “evidence” of Edgar’s infidelity. When Edgar, innocent and unaware of any treachery, shows up at the wedding and curses Lucy, she goes mad, kills her new husband Arthur in the bridal chamber and drops dead herself. When Edgar learns of her death and her faithfulness to him, he dispatches himself, too.
Adaptations in the French version (supervised by Donizetti himself and quite popular in 19th-century France) involve doubling the villainy of brother Henry in the person of Gilbert (an expansion of the huntsman Norman in the Italian version), deleting some music and making changes to accommodate the French language. It will be sung in French with English supertitles.
Starring as Lucy will be soprano Pamela Coburn, with tenor Mark Panuccio as Edgar. French-Canadian baritone Gaetan Laperriere sings Henry, with American tenors John McVeigh and Jeremy Cady as Arthur and Gilbert, respectively. Raymond, a chaplain somewhat akin to Shakespeare’s Father Lawrence, will be sung by Canadian bass Alain Coulombe.
The production, by John Conklin, is from Glimmerglass Opera. Jean-Marie Zeitouni will conduct, with stage direction by Mark Streshinsky.
blue morpho butterfly (morpho peleides)
Amazon rain forest
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Loosely based on Gabriel Garcia-Marquez’ novel “Love in the Time of Cholera,” the ground-breaking work was the first Spanish language opera to be commissioned by a
It's huge," said Catan. "The boat that we have on stage is full-sized and it moves with its own engine. Somebody’s inside driving it." ("He has to have a very careful map because we don’t want him to go into the pit," Catan joked in an interview the end of May.)
The boat, an Amazon River steamboat, is carrying opera diva Florencia Grimaldi to sing at the opera house in
Also on the boat are a warring couple, Paula and Alvaro, trying to re-kindle their marriage, a journalist Rosalba, who is writing a biography of Florencia, the Captain and his nephew Arcadio, who hates life on the river. Rosalba and Arcadio feel a mutual attraction, but resist. Welcoming them aboard is Riolobo, actually one of the river gods, who can take any form he wishes.
When the boat is grounded during a storm, Arcadio takes the wheel and Alvaro falls overboard. Riolobo calms the storm and rescues Alvaro. Paula and Alvaro are reconciled. Rosalba and Arcadio admit their love. As the boat nears
American soprano Alexandra Coku will sing Florencia, with Mexican tenor Arturo Chacon-Cruz as Arcadio and American baritone Carlos Archuleta as Alvaro. Soprano Shana Blake Hill is the only member of the original cast to be singing here. As the cover for Rosalba, she sang the role only once -- from the pit while the scheduled (but indisposed) singer acted on the stage. "She is very happy that ten years later, she is finally going to be able to sing it on stage," said Catan.
Panamanian-American baritone Nmon Ford "may be the perfect Riolobo of all times," Catan added. "He’s athletic, he looks the part and has a booming voice. He’s a very commanding performer."
Conductor for "Florencia" will be Steven Mercurio, with stage direction by Andy Morton.
marsh fritillary (euphydryas aurinia)
Western Europe
(critically endangered)
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Verdi’s Violetta, the beautiful Parisian courtesan who denies herself to save her lover Alfredo’s family from social oblivion, is endangered throughout the opera, not just by the pain of self denial when she gives up Alfredo, but by consumption. She succumbs to it at the end when Alfredo, who has been convinced she no longer loves him, returns for one of the most affecting farewells in opera.
In a recently announced role substitution, Cuban-American soprano Eglise Gutierrez will sing Violetta in place of Hei-Kyung Hong, who cancelled because of illness in her family. Alfredo will be popular tenor Richard Leech, with French baritone Philippe Rouillon as Alfredo’s father Germont. The opera will be sung in Italian with English supertitles.
The production, a new one by director Bliss Hebert and designer Allen Charles Klein, will make its world premiere here (advance publicity describes it as “sumptuous and romantic”). Müller will conduct. Hebert will direct.
Cincinnati Opera’s resident lighting designer is the talented and very accomplished Thomas C. Hase (who just renewed his contract). Chorus master is Henri Venanzi. The Cincinnati Symphony plays for all Cincinnati Opera productions.
Students with a valid ID can get up to two tickets for $10 each at the Music Hall box office on performance days, beginning at 6 p.m. for evening performances, 1:30 p.m. for Sunday matinees.