Madama Butterfly 蝶々夫人 in Japanese and English

So what if... what if a brash American naval officer and a young Japanese girl met and fell in love? How would they communicate? (Certainly not in Italian!) In POP’s most ambitious production to date, Artistic Director Josh Shaw’s long-time dream of a bilingual Madama Butterfly comes to life at The Aratani Theatre in Little Tokyo. With a new libretto by Josh Shaw and Eiki Isomura, all Japanese roles will be sung in Japanese and all American roles will be sung in English. This is a co-production with Opera in the Heights (Houston). This production is sponsored in part by an Innovations Grant from Opera America.

もし…もし明治時代に、アメリカ海軍士官が日本人の少女と出会い、恋に落ちたとしたら…二人はいったいどうやって会話を…？(どう考えてもイタリア語を使ったはずは無いでしょう。) POP史上最も大胆なプロジェクト、芸術監督Josh Shawの長年の夢、プッチーニの「蝶々夫人」のバイリンガル演出がLittle TokyoのAratani Theatreで開幕される。日本人キャラは日系アメリカ人歌手が日本語で演じ、アメリカ人キャラはアメリカ人歌手が英語で演じます。公演は英語と日本語 両方の字幕を表示して行われます。ヒューストンのOpera in the Heightsとの共同作であるこのプロダクションはフルの演出、衣装、オーケストラと合唱団を用いて上演されます。

Madama Butterfly 蝶々夫人
in Japanese and English
Aratani Theatre
Japanese American Cultural Center
Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, CA
April 2020

A Co-Production between Opera in the Heights and Pacific Opera Project

Supertitles in English and Japanese

Conceived, Designed, and Directed by Josh Shaw
Conducted by Eiki Isomura
Japanese Libretto by Eiki Isomura
English Libretto by Josh Shaw

Chorus Master Naoko Suga
Costume Designer Sueko Oshimoto
Lighting Designer Bo Tindell


Cho-cho-san, Janet Szepei Todd
B.F. Pinkerton, Peter James Lake
Sharpless, Kenneth Stavert
Suzuki, Kimberly Sogioka
Goro, Eiji Miura
Yamadori, Steve Moritsugu
Bonze, Hisato Masuyama
Kate Pinkerton, Chelsea Obermeier
Imperial Commissioner, Norge Yip
Registrar, Takuya Matsumoto
Sorrow, Jussi Sjöwall

Chorus (Members from South Bay Singers)
Soprano: Miyako Ito, Kaori Kawamura, Hitomi Kitagawa, Kazuko Kosaka, Keiko Kurosawa, Keiko Nakada, Tomoko Nakazawa, Shinoi Osuka, Yurika Takashima, Makiko Tohmatsu, Naomi Uenishi. Alto: Yoshiko Akane, Hiromi Dunbar, Mayumi El-Mekhgiange, Atsuko Igarashi, Sanaye Kozono, Yoko Kuriki, Noriko Mizuhara, Namie Miyake, Midori Morimoto, Keiko Murai, Keiko Suga, Emiko Sudo, Ayako Takano, Kazuko Tsubota. Tenor: Yusaku Kishi, Toshiki Maehara, Seiko Yajima, Masaru Yokoyama