Joel Hill wrote:

>I remember a number of years ago that the Florida State University Music
>Department did Madama Butterfly on 2 successive nights.  One night in
>Italian and one in English.  ...

Chandos has recently released an English version of Butterfly as well.

>Knowing the libretto almost by heart, it was a real split-personality
>evening.  I kept hoping he would throw at least a few words in Italian,
>but he stuck strictly to English.

Now that I'm listening to both the English and Italian versions, I find
myself breaking into sound-like Italian while the English version is on,
and mumbling in English to the Italian version.

Mitch Friedfeld