Madama Butterfly — Puccini's Opera

On 28 October 2026, at 8:00 pm, the Teatro Felipe VI in Estepona hosts 'Madama Butterfly', Giacomo Puccini's opera in three acts, performed in the original Italian with Spanish subtitles. The production is staged by the L.G. Artist Management (LGAM) Opera Company, together with the National Opera of Moldova, with its own orchestra and choir and more than 70 performers on stage.

The work, with a libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, is set in Nagasaki in the early twentieth century. Cio-Cio-San, the young geisha the opera is popularly named after, marries US Navy officer Pinkerton and is disowned by her family for marrying a foreigner. While she waits faithfully for her husband's return, Pinkerton treats the marriage as a passing affair and returns to the United States to rebuild his life, while she waits, pregnant, in Japan. When he comes back to Japan years later with his new wife to claim the son Butterfly has raised alone, she chooses to take her own life rather than live dishonoured.

First performed at La Scala in Milan in 1904, 'Madama Butterfly' is one of the most widely performed operas in the international repertoire, home to celebrated pieces such as the aria 'Un bel dì, vedremo'.