Madama Butterfly Is the Most Performed Opera at Hawai'i Opera Theatre

Summary: Madama Butterfly is the most performed opera at Hawai'i Opera Theatre, with 32 performances in 10 of HOT's 63 seasons, 1960-1961 to 2022-2023.

mother Cio-Cio-san and child Trouble, portrayed, respectively, by Taiwanese soprano Karen Chia-Ling Ho and Hawai'i's Leah Hayasaka, in the 2021-2022 HOT season's staging of Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly: Hawaii Opera Theatre, via Facebook May 19, 2022

Puccini's Madama Butterfly is the most performed opera at Hawai'i Opera Theatre (HOT), with a tally of 32 performances in 10 of HOT's 63 seasons, 1960-1961 to 2022-2023.

Madama Butterfly by Italian opera composer Giacomo Puccini (Dec. 22, 1858-Nov. 29, 1924) holds the distinction of inaugurating Hawai'i Opera Theatre's first season in 1961. The inaugural season's only opera received three performances. HOT's first season opened Saturday, March 4. The opera's second performance was offered Sunday, March 5. Madama Butterfly's third performance, Tuesday, March 7, closed the season. The opera was performed in the Marion McCarrell (M.M.) Scott Auditorium in President William McKinley High School, known as McKinley High School, located at 1039 South King Street in central Honolulu's Ala Moana neighborhood in southwestern O'ahu.

Puccini's Japan-based opera returned for HOT's second season in 1961. Madama Butterfly rostered as the second season's second opera, with two performances on Friday, April 6, and Sunday, April 8. La Traviata by Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi (Oct. 10, 1813-Jan. 27, 1901) had opened HOT's second season with three performances on Friday, March 23; Sunday, March 25; and Tuesday, March 27.

After an absence of seven seasons, Madama Butterfly opened HOT's 10th season with three performances as the first of two operas in 1970. Madama Butterfly's season opener was held Friday, Feb. 6. The opera's second and third performances took place Monday, Feb. 9, and Tuesday, Feb. 10. Madama Butterfly shared the 10th season with The Marriage of Figaro (Italian: Le Nozze di Figaro) by Classical Era composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Jan. 27, 1756-Dec. 5, 1791). Mozart's comic opera was performed Friday, Feb. 20; Sunday, Feb. 22; and Tuesday, Feb. 24.

A sequence of seven Madama Butterfly-less seasons ended with the opera's appearance as the third of three operas in HOT's 18th season in 1978. The tragic opera's three performances were offered Friday, Feb. 17; Sunday, Feb. 19; and, as season closer, Tuesday, Feb. 21. HOT's 1978 season had opened with three performances (Friday, Jan. 20; Sunday, Jan. 22; Tuesday, Jan. 24) of Samson and Dalila (Samson et Dalila) by French Romantic Era composer Camille Saint-Saëns (Oct. 9, 1835-Dec. 16, 1921) The season's second opera, Ariadne Aux Naxos by German late Romantic and early modern composer Richard Strauss (June 11, 1864-Sept. 8, 1949), received three performances on Friday, Feb. 3; Sunday, Feb. 5; and Tuesday, Feb. 7.

Six seasons separated the fourth and fifth seasons in Madama Butterfly's HOT repertoire. The opera returned in 1985 as the third of three operas in HOT's 25th season. Madama Butterfly's four performances occurred Friday, March 1; Sunday, March 3; Tuesday, March 5; and, as season closer, Wednesday, March 6. Mozart's The Magic Flute (German: Die Zauberflöte) had opened the season with three performances on Friday, Feb. 1; Sunday, Feb. 3; and Tuesday, Feb. 5 . As the season's second opera, The Flying Dutchman (Der Fliegende Holländer) by German Romantic Era composer-librettist Richard Wagner (May 22, 1813-Feb. 13, 1883), offered three mid-month performances on Friday, Feb. 15; Sunday, Feb. 17; and Tuesday, Feb. 19.

Madama Butterfly's sixth HOT season in 1993 followed the opera's seven-season absence. HOT's 33rd season featured Madama Butterfly as the third of three operas. The Puccini opera's four performances were held Friday, Feb. 26; Sunday, Feb. 28; Tuesday, March 2; and, as season closer, Thursday, March 4. Saint-Saëns' Samson and Dalila, which had shared HOT's 1978 season with Madama Butterfly, opened the 1993 with three performances on Friday, Jan. 29; Sunday, Jan. 31; and Tuesday, Feb. 2. Between Samson and Dalila and Madama Butterfly, Die Fledermaus by Austrian light music composer Johann Strauss II (born Johann Baptist Strauss; Oct. 25, 1825-June 3, 1899) received four performances on Friday, Feb. 12; Sunday, Feb. 14; Tuesday, Feb. 16; and Thursday, Feb. 18.

After an absence of six seasons, Madama Butterfly added a seventh season to the opera's HOT repertoire in 2000. As the third of three operas in HOT's 40th season, Madama Butterfly received four performances on Friday, Feb. 25; Sunday, Feb. 27; Tuesday, Feb. 29; and, as season closer, Thursday, March 2. Wagner's Tristan and Isolde (German: Tristan und Isolde) had opened the season with three performances on Friday, Jan. 28; Sunday, Jan. 30; and Tuesday, Feb. 1. The season's second opera, The Barber of Seville (Il Barbiere di Siviglia) by Italian composer Gioachino Rossini (Feb. 29, 1792-Nov. 13, 1868), had three performances on Friday, Feb. 11; Sunday, Feb. 13; and Tuesday, Feb. 15.

An intermission of six seasons distanced Madama Butterfly's seventh HOT season from its eighth. In 2007, Madama Butterfly rostered as the third of three operas, with three performances on Friday, March 2; Sunday, March 4; and, as season closer, Tuesday, March 6. The 47th HOT season's scheduling of Saint-Saëns' Samson and Dalila marked the opera's third shared season with Madama Butterfly. Samson and Dalila's three performances were held on Friday, Feb. 2; Sunday, Feb. 4; and Monday, Feb. 5. Mozart's Don Giovanni sequenced as the season's second opera, with three performances on Friday, Feb. 16; Sunday, Feb. 18; and Tuesday, Feb. 20.

Madama Butterfly's ninth HOT season followed the opera's seven-season absence from Hawai'i Opera Theatre's active repertoire. Madama Butterfly opened the 2014-2015 HOT season as the first of four operas. The Puccini opera received three performances on Friday, Oct. 10; Sunday, Oct. 12; and Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2014. The 55th HOT season's second opera, Wagner's The Flying Dutchman, added its second shared season with Madama Butterfly and tallied three performances on Friday, Feb. 13; Sunday, Feb. 15; and Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2015. Siren Song by English composer Jonathan Dove (born July 18, 1959) was scheduled as the season's third opera with six performances on Friday, March 20; Saturday, March 21; Sunday, March 22; Friday, March 27; Saturday, March 28; and Sunday, March 29. Sweeney Todd by American composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim (March 22, 1930-Nov. 26, 2021) closed the 55th HOT season with three performances on Friday, April 24; Sunday, April 26; and, as season closer, Tuesday, April 28.

After an absence of six seasons, Madama Butterfly returned for its 10th season in 2022. Madama Butterfly closed the 62nd HOT season with three performances on Friday, April 8; Sunday, April 10; and, as season closer, Tuesday, April 12, 2022. The Tragedy of Carmen by English film and theatre director Peter Brook (March 21, 1925-July 2, 2022), opened as the first of the 2021-2022 season's two operas. Siren Song's two performances were held on Friday, Feb. 18; and Sunday, Feb. 20, 2022. The 62nd HOT season's second set of performances, entitled Re-Emerging: HOT Live in Concert, celebrated "the return to live opera," according to the event's HOT Hawai'i Opera Theatre webpage. The 90-minute program of opera and musical theater selections received two performances on Friday, March 11; and Sunday, March 13.

Madama Butterfly's 10 seasons of performances by Hawai'i Opera Theatre began with the opera's prestigious status as the performing arts venue's inaugural opera in spring 1961. Hawai'i Opera Theatre has staged the Puccini opera in every decade of Hawai'i Opera Theatre's six-decade history.

Hawai'i Opera Theatre's inaugural opera, Puccini's Madama Butterfly, was staged, with three performances in March 1961, in President William McKinley High School's M.M. (Marion McCarrell) Scott Auditorium in O'ahu; bronze statue of President McKinley by Amprior, South Ontario, Canada-born, Honolulu-based sculptor Gordon van Renseterer Usborne (April 30, 1876-1933), dedicated Feb. 23, 1911; Oct. 10, 2010, image of McKinley High School: Joel (coconut wireless), CC BY ND 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

mother Cio-Cio-san and child Trouble, portrayed, respectively, by Taiwanese soprano Karen Chia-Ling Ho and Hawai'i's Leah Hayasaka, in the 2021-2022 HOT season's staging of Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly: Hawaii Opera Theatre, via Facebook May 19, 2022, @ https://www.facebook.com/HawaiiOpera/posts/10159029788192712/

Hawai'i Opera Theatre's inaugural opera, Puccini's Madama Butterfly, was staged, with three performances in March 1961, in President William McKinley High School's M.M. (Marion McCarrell) Scott Auditorium in O'ahu; bronze statue of President McKinley by Amprior, South Ontario, Canada-born, Honolulu-based sculptor Gordon van Renseterer Usborne (April 30, 1876-1933), dedicated Feb. 23, 1911; Oct. 10, 2010, image of McKinley High School: Joel (coconut wireless), CC BY ND 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/frikitiki/5066032379/

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