Customer Reviews

Madama Butterfly: Vocal Score

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I purchased this score for a performance of Butterfly in July and August of this year. You would think a Ricordi score would have the Italian text on top. But, no, on top is a larger type English text. Underneath is the barely legible Italian text. Maybe I'm missing something, but most of the Butterfly recordings that I'm familiar with are sung in Italian. Perhaps singing the opera in English was an earlier practice and I've heard "Un bel di sung" in English, but really it isn't standard practice for this opera anymore, and Ricordi should update their score. I literally had to take corrector tape and white-out the English, so I would only have the Italian below my music. I prefer to write out my own translations anyways, so the English took up precious score space, when the Italian could have been made far more legible.

Other than that, and a few mistakes here and there, the music is clear, and the score is a tough one. I've spilled some coffee on the cover, and it wiped off well, with no damage. The binding is also pretty strong.

My only real issue with the score is that the Italian is below the English and in Italics.

If you are planning on performing this opera in Italian, do NOT buy this edition. It is impossible to follow because the English translations are on top of the Italian and the Italian is small and italicized. The paging is awkward and does not follow either the Schirmer or the hard copy of the Ricordi. I learned the music with CD sheet music and got this in the mail the day of my first rehearsal... I immediately sold it to a girl in the chorus after the rehearsal and ordered another edition. It is useless, unless you are performing it in English which probably never happens.