It’s Friday afternoon, the day before the opening of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. It’s 50 degrees outside. Wacker Drive, which had been a maze of ice canyons, is now six inches underwater. Onstage, there’s a matinee of Die Fledermaus. Backstage, a crew copes with a missed Butterfly rehearsal. Earlier in the week, a polar vortex had … More An Exclusive with Patricia Racette