The 12th Yerevan International Music Festival closed on October 25 with the premiere of Giacomo Puccini’s opera “Madama Butterfly”.

The performance was dedicated to the 25th anniversary of Converse Bank, the chief sponsor of the festival.

The bank said that the event was attended by acting Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and his wife, as well as government officials, businesspeople, and music lovers.


““Madama Butterfly” was staged within the framework of Yerevan Music Festival. It had not been performed on Armenian stages for 10 years. We hope that our performance and the 12 concerts of the festival have pleased even the most demanding music lovers. This year we have had the opportunity to listen to exceptional performances by world-renowned musicians,” said Eduard Topchyan, Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra.

The main part was played by one of the best Madama Butterfly performers in the world, Liana Aleksanyan.

“All over the world, business supports development of culture. We would like to thank Converse Bank, which, with its support to the festival, gave us the opportunity to stage and perform the opera “Madama Butterfly” that constantly attracts a large number of spectators on the most famous stages of the world,” said Liana Aleksanyan.


“The opera “Madama Butterfly” is one of the most popular in the world. Its success is due to the melodic elegance of the opera, the incredible purity and sincerity of the main heroine, and the unspeakable lyricism of her character, which becomes very tragic at the end of the opera.

In Armenia, “Madama Butterfly” was first performed in 1934, at Spendiaryan National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet, with Gevorg Budaghyan as the conductor. Last time it was performed on the stage of Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall ten years ago, in 2008, as a theatrical concert performance directed by Maestro Eduard Topchyan and staged by Sukias Torosyan,” said the bank.