Richard enjoys meeting with friends and wellwishers after a performance!

In April of 1995 Richard made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, opposite Maria Spacagna.

Plácido Domingo conducted the première, all performances were sold out. Click film icon to put yourself in the dress circle at the Metropolitan Opera. Maestro Domingo is just taking his bow.... 2.8 meg 32 sec Quicktime Movie

Richard Sings "Viene la sera" end of Act 1 "Madama Butterfly".

Giacomo Puccini completed Madama Butterfly in 1904. Exhausting himself and his librettists in the process.

The La Scala première was a spectacular fiasco with Puccini having to go on stage to plead with the audience to allow the performance to go on. The Milanese public was not at all ready for the story of an American sailor who makes a "temporary" financial and romantic arrangement with a geisha through an marriage broker, which results in a child, and betrayal of both mother and child by the father.

Under Japanese law Butterfly was considered married, but the sailor could legally divorce her simply by not paying for her upkeep. The sailor (Pinkerton) returns to America. Butterfly gives birth to a child "Little Sorrow" and waits in poverty 3 years for Pinkerton's return.

When Pinkerton's ship, the "Abraham Lincoln" does return to Nagasaki, it brings Pinkerton and his new American wife. They come looking for the child. Butterfly will only give up the boy if Pinkerton himself comes for "Little Sorrow". Pinkerton arrives, too late, Butterfly has chosen death before dishonour.

For Placido Domingo, the fact that Pinkerton and Butterfly come back for the child is the most difficult part of the opera...

4.5 sec, 391k Quicktime Movie

...What does Plácido Domingo feel about Richard Margison as a tenor? 12 sec 1.1 meg Quicktime Movie