Sunday, January 24, 2027 at 2:30pm
Leonhardt Auditorium

$20 per person for VBMA Members and Vero Beach Opera Members; $25 per person for non-members

Space is limited; pre-registration required.
Tickets include admission to the galleries. Come early to see the exhibition.

The late nineteenth century saw a surge of fascination with Japanese art and culture, influencing visual art, fashion, landscape design, and theatre. The image of the geisha became especially iconic and when Giacomo Puccini saw David Belasco’s Madame Butterfly in London in 1900, he knew he had found the subject for his next opera.
Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, the tragic story of a fifteen-year-old geisha who marries an American sailor, features some of his most passionate music and continues to captivate audiences more than 120 years after its premiere.

In this talk, Vero Beach Opera Master of Ceremonies, Ian Campbell, explores the history of the opera’s composition and considers some of the questions involved in staging it in the 21st century.