Madama Butterfly’s New Wardrobe

Maurizio Galante appeared in some previous posts in connection with interior design.

Yet Galante is also a fashion designer and recently tried his hand at the difficult job of costume designer (this is actually not his first time, as he also worked on Hans Werner Henze's opera based on Yukio Mishima's novella Gogo No Eiko).

The designer recently created the costumes for a new representation of Puccini’s "Madama Butterfly", directed by Giorgio Ferrara, with sets by Gianni Quaranta and featuring orchestra conductor Pinchas Steinberg.

The opera with Daniela Dessì (Madama Butterfly) and Alexey Dolgov (Pinkerton) was recently performed in Rome and will be restaged in September in Palermo.

Ferrara added as a homage to the Kabuki Theatre a flying character (threatening Uncle Bonzo) and elements borrowed from the Greek tragedy (the choir), but the costumes are definitely among the most interesting elements of this new staging of Puccini’s opera.

In some cases, Galante replicated the techniques used for his 2009 Haute Couture collection; in others, he employed hundreds of yards of grey, pink, white and pearl-coloured organza to create a costume imitating a giant, ethereal and ephemeral peony. Unfortunately, there are not pics available of Kate Pinkteron’s costume, but it’s a sort of crossover between a classic suit by Dior and a power suit donned by Rachael out of Blade Runner with some slightly Oriental twists included.

Since I have already paid homage to Maria Callas’ Madama Butterfly in a previous post, I’m gonna leave you with a rather different Butterfly, Malcolm McLaren’s.