Opera Verdi Europa's soaring "Madame Butterfly" comes to Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts | Press Releases

Opera Verdi Europa, a young Bulgarian company fast gaining an impressive international reputation, will take the stage in Puccini's classic "Madame Butterfly" on Saturday, Nov. 5, at 8 p.m. at Fairfield University's Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts. A pre-concert Art to Heart discussion with Howard Kissel, the New York Daily News chief drama critic, will take place from 7 to 7:40 p.m.

"Madame Butterfly" tells the heartbreaking story of Cio-Cio-San, a 15-year-old Japanese girl who enters into a "geisha marriage" with Lieutenant B.F. Pinkerton, an American who has leased a home above Nagasaki harbor in the early 1900s. Though she believes the marriage will last, Pinkerton knows their contract has a monthly renewal option, which, he tells his assistant, he will eventually make use of so he can marry an American woman.

Cio-Cio-San bears Pinkerton a son and faithfully holds a three-year vigil while he's at sea, only to find him return with his new wife, Kate. Consumed by grief, she chooses a tragic path of honor rather than live in disgrace.

One of Puccini's most memorable works, "Madame Butterfly" is unlike many other operas in that there's no spectacle or complicated, overlapping plotlines. The intimate story is told simply through songs of love, yearning and, ultimately, deep sadness that stay with the audience long after the curtain comes down.

Established in 1996 by Ivan Kyurkchiev, Opera Verdi carries on the sophisticated tradition of Bulgarian opera. Performances have been co-produced by the major opera houses of Bulgaria, including the Sofia National Opera, Sofia Radio Orchestra and Mixed Choir, Plovdiv Opera and Philharmonic Society and the Stara Zagora Opera Theater, all of which have launched world-renowned opera singers. Opera Verdi has also brought its lavish productions to top venues in Bucharest, Romania; Budapest, Hungary; Chisinau, Moldavia; and Kiev, Ukraine.

A long list of distinguished conductors and choreographers - from Metodi Matakiev and Luciano di Martino and Krzyzstof Pastor and Craig Revel Horwood - is credited with the rapid artistic and professional development of the company. Its principal singers, choir, ballet and orchestra have quickly attained an interpretive maturity in many different styles.

Kyurkchiev, who directs the company through about 70 international performances a year, studied at the Teatro alla Scalla, Milan, under the legendary Giulieta Simeonato and Giuseppe di Stefano. In 1984, he became a laureate of the International Tenor Competition "Enrico Caruso" in Milan, and he has performed in such stellar venues as the Arena di Verona, the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, Carnegie Hall in New York City and Teatro La Fenice in Venice.

Opera Verdi's varied repertoire reflects its excellence and versatility. Its current works feature "Otello," "Aida," "Tosca," "Rigoletto," "La Boheme" and productions of the Mozart and Verdi requiems. The company has wowed audiences with its dazzling "super-production" of "La Traviata" at the Munich Olympiahalle and a memorable open-air production of "Aida" at the unique natural stage at Castelgrande in Bellinzona, Switzerland.

Tickets are $50, $45 and $40. For tickets, call the Quick Center box office at 203-254-4010 or toll free at 1-877-ARTS-396. For more information, visit www.quickcenter.com.