Betrayal. Love. Sacrifice.

The timeless themes seen at the Houston Grand Opera’s rendition of the renowned “Madame Butterfly” had a new audience on Feb. 6: high school students.

Orchestra and Piano joined Italian classes, Italian National Honor Society and Choir to attend the performance.

“[The high school audience] created a different feel,” junior Isabella Fetta said. “All the students were “ooo-ing” and “ahh-ing.” They had very loud responses to a lot of the scenes.”

Fetta attended the event for both her Italian and orchestra class.

“[Italian] went for a project and to learn about Italian culture,” Fetta said. “I went [for orchestra] because it was a unique opportunity to understand more about the influence of music on performances such as operas and plays. I balanced the interpretation [of the Italian] and the music by using context clues and [the opera] had subtitles in case we didn’t understand.”

Madame Butterfly follows the tragic love story of a former Japanese geisha who eventually commits suicide for her son’s honor.

“I think the opera referenced a lot of history in what the Americans used to do in foreign countries with marrying someone for no reason and then divorcing them to marry an American wife,” Fetta said. “I thought it was sad how Madame Butterfly was used and then thrown away.”

The different school organizations were able to watch the whole opera even though there were a few delays in getting to the production.

“Between making sure everybody was present and separating into groups with chaperones, we didn’t leave until around 6:00,” Fetta said. “We arrived [at the opera] at 6:45 because the school buses had to deal with rush hour traffic.”

Despite the setbacks, Fetta says she still enjoyed the play.

“It was a different experience,” Fetta said. “It was a new way to see how a culture can affect the way people view others, and how their judgment affects the people that look up to them.”