St. Louis Public Radio will carry the Met Opera broadcast of Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly on their HD channel, KWMU-3 beginning at 12 noon. Approximate running time 3 hours, 10 minutes with intermissions at approximately 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m.
The Met says:
Anthony Minghella’s breathtakingly beautiful staging returns with Liping Zhang as the tragic heroine. Robert Dean Smith and Marcello Giordani share the role of the faithless Pinkerton and Plácido Domingo conducts.
In the December 8, 2011, New York Times, Steve Smith writes:
Puccini’s sumptuous music, potently allusive and ideally flowing as if unspooled in an endless thread, is the most obvious and unshakable asset in any account of Butterfly. The story, however familiar, is reliably gripping; the characters are relatable, whether through pity or revulsion.
The current production — created by Anthony Minghella at the English National Opera, introduced at the Met in 2006 as the calling card of the Peter Gelb era and now keenly stewarded by Carolyn Choa, the director and choreographer — is among the most effective productions Mr. Gelb has brought into the house.
A compelling Cio-Cio-San, the geisha of the title, is crucial; Liping Zhang, a Chinese-Canadian soprano who has sung the part at the Met and elsewhere around the world, was an arresting presence. She sang vividly and affectingly, and acted with palpable commitment.
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