When the young Japanese girl, Cio-Cio San, marries the American lieutenant B.F. Pinkerton, she is convinced that it is true love. She, therefore, does not worry when he leaves Japan to return to America, because, naturally, he will return to her.

But to Pinkerton, his Japanese marriage was merely a way to pass the time, and he realizes too late that playing with a young, impressionable heart can have dire consequences.

Lars Kaalund’s romantic, critically acclaimed interpretation of Puccini’s tragic drama is a tribute to Cio-Cio San, who insists on waiting for her beloved and continues to believe in her love, even when everything looks hopeless. The set designer, Christian Friedländer, and the artist and costume designer Pernille Egeskov have created an aesthetically beautiful and simple setting, mirroring the Western world’s dream of the Far East with sweeping silk kimonos inspired by the renowned Japanese artist Hokusai’s woodcut The Great Wave off Kanagawa.

Madame Butterfly is performed in Italian with Danish surtitles.