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46 FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | MARCH 2026 On March 13, the Four Seasons Opera Club presents a fan favorite work by Giacomo Puccini, Madama Buttery. en on March 20, our ballet oering is the 1983 ABT production of the classic ballet Don Quixote. featuring Mikhail Baryshnikov and principal ballerina, Cynthia Harvey. Both performances begin at 6 pm. Our presentation of Madama Buttery is a 1974 production by the Vienna State Opera Chorus, the Vienna Philharmonic and international stars, Placido Domingo, Mirella Freni, and Christa Ludwig under the baton of Herbert von Karajan. Buttery is oen proposed as a good rst opera experience. Certainly, the story line is very well known, as is the signature aria, "Un bel di vedremo." Madama Buttery (along with Turandot) is part of Puccini's exploration of exoticism, specically, eastern music. As with Turandot, Puccini incorporates folk melodies into his score and blends traditional 12-tone composition with the pentatonic scales of the east. Whereas the music is subtle and stunningly beautiful, the story is shockingly brutal. B.F. Pinkerton, a U.S. Navy ocer on shore leave in Nagasaki, takes a "temporary" Japanese bride, Cio-cio-san, only to abandon her to get a "real" wife back home. Several years later Pinkerton returns to learn of and then claim their love-child with tragic consequences. Broadway fans will know this story from the 1991 Broadway musical Miss Saigon. Our ballet oering also has a Broadway connection to 1965's Man of La Mancha for which Richard Kiley won the 1966 Tony for leading actor. In the ballet world the work is known by the original Cervantes title Don Quixote. e ballet was conceived and created by Marius Petipa and Ludwig Minkus at the Moscow Bolshoi in 1869. e oen used subtitle is Kitri's Wedding, which, ironically, is not a part of the Cervantes masterpiece novel. In fact, the Illustrious Señor is a very minor character in the ballet and is oen portrayed by a non-dancing supernumerary or comedian. Instead, the Petipa/Minkus creation served as a vehicle for Petipa to share his memories of Spain where he lived for several years in his youth. Our presentation of this classic ballet takes full advantage of Baryshnikov's brilliance to update the Petipa choreography to showcase a century of ballet technique evolution. Both the Kitri (Harvey) and Basilio (Mischa) variations are jaw-dropping expositions. In fact, Baryshnikov demonstrates that man can y! See you at the eater! ~ Harvey Toyama, admin@fsbopera. org, (951) 524-3765 Opera Club Freni and Domingo as Cio-cio-san and Pinkerton Mikhail Baryshnikov, Basilio Cynthia Harvey, Kitri