Granite Hills honor choir students visit Madam Butterfly with directer Sasanna Efseaff in Fresno.

Granite Hills choir students got to see the opera on Feb. 6. They attended the dress rehearsal of Madam Butterfly. Accompanied by choir teacher Sasanna Efseaff, 31 students traveled to Fresno straight after school to take in what is one of Puccini’s most famous operas.
 
Puccini, an Italian composer who died in 1924, based Madam Butterfly on a short story by John Luther Long.

The opera is set in Nagasaki and revolves around the young Japanese geisha Madam Butterfly, who is wed to an American naval officer.

Butterfly is thrilled, and falls hopelessly in love with her husband and with American culture. However, she does not realize her husband, Pinkerton, sees the marriage only as a convenience; a contract which, like the one on the house they live in, can be cancelled at short notice.

To him, she simply fulfils his desire to have ‘a girl in every port’ before he returns to America and marries a ‘real’ American wife. Butterfly renounces the ways of her ancestors in order to become more American, and believes him when he promises to return to her.

Three years pass, during which time Butterfly gives birth to a fair-haired son and anxiously awaits his homecoming. Eventually, Pinkerton does return- arm-in-arm with a ‘proper’ wife. Distraught, Butterfly hands their son over to the new Mrs. Pinkerton, and commits suicide.
 
Accompanying the moving plot, which reduced more than one member of the audience to tears, was phenomenal singing.

“I really enjoyed it, the performers are world class and I was very glad to share it with the students,” Efseaff said.

Similar sentiments were echoed by the students themselves. 

For many students, this was their first experience with the opera. “I’ve always wanted to go to an opera and I guess I couldn’t say no!” choir student Sarah Hilliard said.

Attendance of Madam Butterfly was a rewarding experience for teachers and students alike.