Lyric Opera of Kansas City | Opera Dives Deep: Between Fantasy and Reality

Event Description:

In fashioning Madame Butterfly, librettists Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa consulted several literary stories written by Westerners with connections to Japan. Composer Giacomo Puccini gathered examples of Japanese music, which he used liberally in the opera's score. While the opera draws heavily on Western tropes about Japan and East Asia, it also contains elements of truth—a combination that has captivated audiences worldwide for over 120 years. Join us as we examine this tension between fiction and history, fantasy and reality, within Puccini's "tragedia giapponese" ("Japanese tragedy").

Speaker: Dr. Kunio Hara, Associate Professor of Music History at the University of South Carolina

When: Monday, November 10, 2025, 6:00–700 pm

When: Kirk Family YMCA
222 W. 11th St.
Kansas City, MO 64105

Cost: FREE

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Lyric Opera Season 2025-2026