M Butterfly opens at the Santa Fe Opera, August 2020. Learn more here
From a modern Madama Butterfly to new commissions by female composers, the future of opera—and what might be the art form’s saving grace—is political, relevant, and multidimensional.
When the virtuosic Arturo Toscanini presided over Milan’s La Scala at the end of the 19th century, the majority of the company’s repertoire comprised music written during the prolific past two decades, from Verdi’s Otello to Puccini’s La Boheme. “It was a living, breathing thing,” says Michael Capasso, general manager of the recently revived New York City Opera.