Opera Box presents Puccini's spectacular opera 'Madama Butterfly' at Culross.

The opera setting is the magnificent gardens of 17th century Culross Abbey House, home of Lord and Lady Bruce.

Madama Butterfly is perhaps the most successful of all operas and is based on a true event, an encounter between a Japanese girl and an American naval officer. It moves from delicate exchanges and builds towards tremendous climaxes of poignant passion, with melodies and orchestration of immense beauty, which are atmospheric, dramatic and colourful and contain some of the most wonderful moments in opera.

The plot
Pinkerton is the dashing U.S. Naval officer with a philandering heel, who upon arrival in Japan becomes infatuated with the fifteen year old Cio-Cio San, known as Butterfly. He is aware of her fragility, but not satisfied unless he makes her one of his ‘flowers on every shore’.

Butterfly is not a complete innocent - she has been a geisha - but is nonetheless fragile, unworldly, and in love with the handsome sailor.

She deceives herself, despite abundant warnings, as to Pinkerton's motives. The tale unfolds to music, which captures the feelings of love, yearning and pain.

Since 1996, the Culross Festival has staged an outdoor opera each summer in the gardens of the Abbey House. Audiences are invited to bring picnics and enjoy the unique outdoor experience of world class singers performing in a beautiful historic setting.

Arrangements for inclement weather have been made for outdoor shows.

Guide dogs only, allowed in gardens. Ample parking beside Abbey House.