BUTTERFLY’S TROUBLE Plays 45th St. Theatre

This January, Voice Afire Pocket Opera & Cabaret will present the U.S. premiere of Butterfly's Trouble, Ray Luedeke's intriguing English language adaptation of Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly and David Belasco's play Madame Butterfly. The gripping "pocket opera" for only seven performers will be staged by director/choreographer Heidi Lauren Duke (Lincoln Center Directors Lab) and will feature a powerful ensemble of two singers, one actor, and four instrumentalists to tell this moving story of tragic love and a clash of cultures. The production will run from January 7th thru January 13th at the 45th Street Theatre.

In Butterfly's Trouble, Trouble, son of Madame Butterfly and Lieutenant Pinkerton – two years old at the end of Puccini's opera - is now a middle-aged and guilt-ridden man. He has returned from the USA, his adopted home, to Nagasaki, Japan, to discover the truth about his mother's death. The date is August 7, 1945 – the day after the atom bomb blast that leveled the city. As he stands in the ruins of his Japanese mother's house, looking at the devastation around him, contemplating suicide, he sees a vision: he has returned to the Spring of 1900, the year before his own birth. As in a dream, the spirits of Butterfly and Pinkerton come to him, and Trouble experiences the beautiful and tragic events that led to his mother's death.

In the production, the seven multi-talented ensemble members each serve as musician-actors, weaving together traditions of chamber opera with modern movement theatre; this unique interpretation of the classic and tragic love story includes both spoken word and vocal performances - all presented in English. The gorgeous music is entirely that of Giacomo Puccini.

Soprano Julianne Park will star as Cho-Cho-San with tenor John Tedeschi as Lt. Pinkerton and actor Hassan Nazari-Robati as Trouble. The ensemble is completed by musical director Jemmy Chen on keyboard, Edmund Bagnell on violin (who starred as Tobias in the First National Tour of John Doyle's Sweeney Todd), Guy Chadash (formerly with The Rishon Israel Symphony Orchestra) on clarinet, and Bobbie Lee Crow III on cello. Soprano Katherine Cardin is the cover for Cho-Cho-San.

Butterfly's Trouble will run from January 7th thru January 13th at the 45th Street Theatre (354 West 45th Street) with 8pm performances on Saturday 1/7, Tuesday 1/10, Wednesday 1/11, Thursday 1/12 and Friday 1/13, as well as 2pm matinee performances on Sunday 1/8 and Wednesday 1/11. Tickets, priced at $25, can be purchased online at www.VoiceAfire.com or by phone at 866-811-4111.

For more information on Butterfly's Trouble, visit www.VoiceAfire.com.