M. Butterfly

M. BUTTERFLY

Libretto by David Henry Hwang

Music by Huang Ruo

Don’t miss this highly anticipated World Premiere Opera.

The Santa Fe Opera: July 30 - August 24, 2022

Rene Gallimard, a civil servant at the French embassy in Beijing, falls in love with a beautiful Chinese opera singer named Song Liling, who holds two shocking secrets, both of which eventually bring Gallimard professional and personal ruin. Broadway’s smash hit is transformed to operatic form.

"IT SEEMED TIME TO FINALLY EMBARK UPON MY DREAM OF BRINGING 'M. BUTTERFLY' BACK TO THE WORLD OF OPERA...HUANG RUO AND I BELIEVE IT WILL ALLOW THIS STORY TO TAKE WING, MORE BEAUTIFULLY AND POWERFULLY THAN EVER BEFORE." -LIBRETTIST DAVID HENRY HWANG

Read more about M. BUTTERFLY the opera

Top-Bottom; Ensemble, Mark Stone (René Gallimard), photo by Curtis Brown Photography for the Santa Fe Opera

Left-Right; Kangmin Justin Kim (Song Liling), Mark Stone (René Gallimard), photo by Curtis Brown Photography for the Santa Fe Opera

Left-Right; Ensemble, Kangmin Justin Kim (Song Liling), Mark Stone (René Gallimard), photo by Curtis Brown Photography for the Santa Fe Opera

Left-Right; Ensemble, Mark Stone (René Gallimard), photo by Curtis Brown Photography for the Santa Fe Opera

Left-Right; Ensemble, Kangmin Justin Kim (Song Liling), Mark Stone (René Gallimard), photo by Curtis Brown Photography for the Santa Fe Opera

Left-Right; Justin Kim (Song Liling), Mark Stone (René Gallimard), photo by Curtis Brown Photography for the Santa Fe Opera

Left-Right; Andrew Turner (Agent 2), Mark Stone (René Gallimard), Amanda Lynn Bottoms (Agent 1), photo by Curtis Brown Photography for the Santa Fe Opera

Left-Right; Ensemble, Mark Stone (René Gallimard), Kangmin Justin Kim (Song Liling), photo by Curtis Brown Photography for the Santa Fe Opera

Joshua Dennis (Marc), photo by Curtis Brown Photography for the Santa Fe Opera

Left-Right; Ensemble, Kangmin Justin Kim (Song Liling), Mark Stone (René Gallimard), photo by Curtis Brown Photography for the Santa Fe Opera

Kangmin Justin Kim (Song Liling), photo by Curtis Brown Photography for the Santa Fe Opera

Dream of the Red Chamber

Libretto by David Henry Hwang and Bright Sheng
Music by Bright Sheng
Based on the book by Cao Xueqin

The company of Dream of the Red Chamber. Photo by Cory Weaver for the San Francisco Opera.

Based on the book by 18th-century Qing Dynasty writer Cao Xueqin, Dream of the Red Chamber (also known as The Story of the Stone) is one of the four great classical Chinese novels, considered by many to be the pinnacle of  Chinese literature.  Dream of the Red Chamber was commissioned by San Francisco Opera and premiered there in 2016, directed by Stan Lai, in a coproduction with the Hong Kong Arts Festival, which presented the work in spring 2017, prior to a fall tour of Mainland China.

Yijie Shi and Pureum Jo. Photo by Cory Weaver for the San Francisco Opera.