The Butterfly Project

From the opera singer and innovative artist the Toronto Star called “a force of nature,” Teiya Kasahara 笠原貞野 (they/them) presents The Butterfly Project バタフライ・プロジェクト (or, The Ballad of Chōchō-san), an electro-acoustic dreamscape that reimagines Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. Joined by exciting new media and sound artist Andrea Wong, Kasahara uses their powerful voice and compelling vision in order to reclaim the Japanese melodies Puccini appropriated, while freeing Butterfly’s long misunderstood heroine, Chōchō-san (蝶々さん), from the confines of the opera’s tragic ending.

The Origin Story

In January 2020 I had the privilege to sing my first ever Cio-Cio San in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly with the Windsor Symphony Orchestra. For many reasons, this was a meaningful and momentous occasion for me professionally and personally. There’s nothing like the swell of an orchestra behind you to take up your voice and let it soar over top, and an orchestra playing the music of the great Giacomo Puccini is like no other. As a Nikkei settler based in Canada, I also can’t help but think critically of this work and of many other works that exist in the operatic canon that have appropriated many cultures and are just plain racist and sexist. Yet, we still produce those works today, oftentimes with no critical lenses or discourse to be had. As one of the most famous operas ever to have been written with one of the most glorious arias, I have found some peace with singing this role (and other appropriated roles) by creating discourse around the work and being able to use my creativity to live in it and continue to engage with it today. In the original Madama Butterfly, Puccini told the story of Cio-Cio San. In my reimagination, Chō-Chō san (蝶々さん) gets to tell her own story and this is the Butterfly Project.