Anthony Minghella’s celebrated production of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly will return to the Met for 12 performances beginning December 5.

The December 5 opening performance will be broadcast live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM Channel 74, as will the performances on December 17, 22, and February 22. The December 5 and February 22 performances will also be streamed live on the Met’s Web site

Liping Zhang and Patricia Racette will share the title role of Cio-Cio-San, the delicate young bride whose love for her faithless husband leads to devastating tragedy. Robert Dean Smith and Roberto De Biasio will make Met role debuts as Pinkerton, and this spring, Marcello Giordani will return to the role, which he sang in the 2006 new production premiere.

Maria Zifchak will sing Butterfly’s devoted servant Suzuki in all 12 of this season’s performances, while the role of Sharpless will be shared by Luca Salsi and, in his Met debut, the French bass-baritone Laurent Naouri. Leading the performances will be two veteran Met Butterfly conductors, Plácido Domingo and Marco Armiliato, as well as Yves Abel in his first Met performances of this opera.

When Minghella’s staging premiered on opening night of the Met’s 2006-07 season, it received excellent reviews for its visually spectacular setting of Puccini’s story. This revival will be directed and choreographed by Minghella’s widow, Carolyn Choa, who served as associate director on the premiere staging and directed the production’s most recent Met performances, in the 2008-09 season. Domingo and Armiliato have each led performances of Butterfly in two previous seasons, most recently in 2003-04. This will be Abel’s first time conducting a Puccini opera at the Met, where he has led performances of Verdi’s La Traviata, Bizet’s Carmen, and Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia.

Chinese soprano Zhang, who stars in seven December performances, made her Met debut as Cio-Cio-San in the Met’s 2003-04 season and most recently appeared as Liù in Puccini’s Turandot in the 2006-07 season. Racette assumes the role of Cio-Cio-San on February 17. She sang the role in the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons and starred in The Met: Live in HD transmission of the opera. Her numerous Met Puccini roles also include Musetta and Mimì in La Bohème, Giorgetta in Il Tabarro, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, and the title roles in Suor Angelica and Tosca (a role she repeats in six performances this season).