Madame Butterflywas a staged production of the opera produced by Pacific Symphony in February2019. Directed by Eric Einhorn, theproduction of Madame Butterflychallenged how this opera fits into the 21st century repertory ofstories when dealing with racism, misogyny, physical and emotional abuse and(in the case of Madame Butterfly) pedophilia. The production was set in sort of midcentury degenerate Japanese stylecontrasted with the clean crisp “Americana” style of Pinkerton and the otherAmericans in the opera. The twocontrasting worlds were meant to emphasis the extreme differences of the twocultures and how the American characters take advantage of the Japanesecharacters within the story. The overallesthetic of the costumes is meant to draw attention of the differences of thesetwo groups, clean verses dirty, traditional verses modern, old verses new darkverses light.
