Mariposa by DeNada Dance Theatre

Choreographer Carlos Pons Guerra’s Mariposa is a queer reimagining of Puccini’s seminal opera, Madame Butterfly.

Under the neon lights of a distant Caribbean port, a local rent boy and a foreign sailor fall ominously in love.

Mariposa is an operatic dance drama that transports Puccini’s Orientalist libretto to post-revolution Cuba, to a dockland world of faded showgirls, hopeful rent boys, troubled sailors and Santería spirits.

Engulfed in a tropical storm of repressed desires, this production is a passionate and deeply moving exploration of what we are ready to sacrifice in order to be loved and accepted.

With original music by Spanish composer Luis Miguel Cobo, inspired by Caribbean sounds as well as Puccini, Mariposa will enthral dance and opera audiences alike.