Search

Want to keep up-to-date with the latest news from EMI Classics?

Please sign up to our free newsletter below

EMI & VIrgin Classics on facebook
EMI Classics Official YouTube Channel
EMI & Virgin Classics || Store
EMI Masters
EMI - The Home of Opera
CD Releases

Puccini: Madama Butterfly

Angela Gheorghiu, Jonas Kaufmann, Enkelejda Shkosa, Fabio Capitanucci, Gregory Bonfatti, Raymond Aceto / Orchestra e Coro dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Chorus Master Norbert Balatasch, Antonio Pappano

Series: EMI Classics

Released: 02/03/2009

Cat. No: 4562152

Format: CD

Number Of Discs: 2

Barcode: 5099945621529

Madama Butterfly appears on EMI Classics for the first time in many years in a new studio recording. The role of Cio-Cio-San is stunningly performed by Angela Gheorghiu, partnered by the exciting young German tenor Jonas Kaufmann as her lover Pinkerton, both making their debuts in these roles. Suzuki is sung by Enkelejda Shkosa, Sharpless by Fabio Capitanucci and Goro by Gregory Bonfatti. Antonio Pappano conducts the Orchestra e Coro dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in the two-act opera. The recording took place in the Santa Cecilia Hall of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome in July 2008, the year commemorating the 150th anniversary of Puccini’s birth. Given the lapse of 42 years since the appearance of the last seminal recording of Madama Butterfly with Renata Scotto/Carlo Bergonzi – and even earlier releases with Maria Callas/Nicolai Gedda and Victoria de los Angeles with both Giuseppe di Stefano and Jussi Bjorling – all recorded by EMI Classics-- this new production has attracted keen anticipation among press and music lovers worldwide. In an era when record companies have virtually ceased to make studio recordings of operas - one of the last being EMI’s Tristan und Isolde with Plácido Domingo and Nina Stemme, and in the words of Producer David Groves, speaking shortly after the recording sessions, "When it is so exceptional to make a studio opera recording, to find the perfect circumstances in which to record Madama Butterfly is both rare and precious. It was the right place at the right time with the perfect cast, conductor, orchestra and venue. The orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia played the music as though it was written for them and the partnership between the soloists Angela Gheorghiu and Jonas Kaufmann and conductor Antonio Pappano was a magical combination".
Videoclips
Madama Butterfly

Concert Dates

18th November '10Angela GheorghiuRoyal Opera House, London

Click here to book tickets.

22nd November '10Angela GheorghiuRoyal Opera House, London

Click here to book tickets.

25th November '10Angela GheorghiuRoyal Opera House, London

Click here to book tickets.

27th November '10Angela GheorghiuRoyal Opera House, London

Click here to book tickets.

30th November '10Angela GheorghiuRoyal Opera House, London

Click here to book tickets.

4th December '10Angela GheorghiuRoyal Opera House, London

Click here to book tickets.

7th December '10Angela GheorghiuRoyal Opera House, London

Click here to book tickets.

10th December '10Angela GheorghiuRoyal Opera House, London

Click here to book tickets.


Sign-Up

Want to keep up-to-date with the latest news from Antonio Pappano, ?

Please sign up below

Press Reviews

“Angela Gheorghiu never sounds better than when singing Puccini…"– The Guardian

“Gheorghiu is always reason enough to attend any performance, but she brings a special quality to Puccini." – www.musicomh.com

[Gheorghiu's voice, like Tebaldi's, shows]" strength of tone, breadth of phrasing and attention to musical and verbal details. Everything....is technically assure, thought through and emotionally rewarding....[Her account of Un bel di vedremo] is overwhelming, as is the death scene." (Gramophone on Gheorghiu's Puccini CD)

Add your review