Madama Butterfly, SC 74

Giacomo Puccini’s ‘Madama Butterfly’ is an opera (composed in 1900–03) which premiered in 1904 at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. The libretto was written by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on the play ‘Madame Butterfly’ by David Belasco.

The story is set in Nagasaki and recounts the tragic fate of the young Japanese geisha Cio-Cio-San, known as Butterfly, and her marriage to the American naval officer Pinkerton. In this opera, Puccini combined Italian operatic traditions with musical influences from Japan, including the use of Japanese melodies and timbres. The orchestration often emphasises subtle moods and the inner emotions of the characters.

The soprano aria ‘Un bel dì, vedremo’ (which appears in the second act in every version) is one of the opera’s defining moments and is a global classic. Madama Butterfly is performed regularly and remains an opera centred on themes such as love, cultural differences and personal expectations.

Anecdote

The first performance in Milan (in two acts) was not a success and received much criticism, partly due to the tempo and structure of the work. Puccini subsequently revised the opera on several occasions (each time in three acts), and it is primarily the fifth version from 1907 that is most frequently performed today. Even after that, he continued to refine and polish the work periodically for the rest of his life, but not every existing version has been published.

Without ever having visited the country, Puccini took care whilst composing to create a particular atmosphere by basing the Japanese melodies he incorporated into the score (some of which were derived from folk music) on various European and Japanese sources.