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'Butterfly' Tragedy At Glimmerglass

By JIM KEVLIN

for allotsego.com

COOPERSTOWN – “Madame Butterfly” ends in tragedy.

Not so with Otto Lilienthal, the little-remembered inventor of the glider, as as George Peters told it while he installed his “Flight Patterns” on the lawn of the Glimmerglass Festival this afternoon.

Lilienthal was the rage in Berlin in the 1890s.   He built the Fliegerberg ("Aviator's Hill") at his home outside the city, and Berliners would picnic there and watch him glide.  If only people could fly, he believed, peace on earth could be achieved.

As it happened, he died of injuries from a glider crash, but he didn’t consider it a tragedy.   His final words:  “It’s a small sacrifice for peace.”

So this summer, when Puccini’s tragic “Butterfly” is performed inside the Alice Busch Theatre, during intermissions opera-goers will be able to ponder happier visions of butterflies.