Madame Butterfly plays tonight

JAKARTA (JP): The London Opera and Concert Company will stage highlights of Madame Butterfly, a three-act opera by Giacomo Puccini, in the Grand Ballroom of the Grand Hyatt Hotel Jakarta tonight.

The performance, to start at 7 p.m. in the 700-seat ballroom, will be preceded by a cocktail party and feature two intermissions complete with desserts. There were still tickets, for Rp150,000 (US$64) each, as of 4 p.m. yesterday, according to the hotel, a joint sponsor with television station RCTI and Dutch airline KLM.

The London opera group, directed by soprano Barbara Segal, has performed several times in Jakarta. Last year it performed Georges Bizet's Carmen. In 1994, it performed Giuseppe Verdi's Aida.

Madame Butterfly was first performed in 1904 in Milan's La Scala opera house. It was adapted from American playwright David Belasco's tragic love story about a U.S. Navy lieutenant and a Japanese girl. (arf)