Discover Puccini’s opera
Madama Butterfly
Puccini at the very peak of his powers: a young geisha girl is callously abandoned by her American husband.
Introduction | Synopsis | Characters
Introduction
First performed in 1904, Madama Butterfly tells a contemporary tale of culture clash when a Lieutenant in the US Navy, Pinkerton, decides to contract a marriage with a Japanese geisha without any commitment on his side.
The devastating impact of Pinkerton’s carelessness is played out in music influenced by authentic Japanese sources amplified with Puccini’s Italianate passion.
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Synopsis
ACT I
A hillside overlooking the port of Nagasaki
The marriage broker Goro shows Lieutenant Pinkerton around the new house he has rented. Sharpless, the American consul, arrives, and they discuss Pinkerton’s new Japanese bride, Butterfly, just 15. Sharpless warns Pinkerton that his careless approach to life will bring sadness. Pinkerton says he looks forward to a real marriage with an American woman in due course.
Butterfly and her companions approach. She shows Pinkerton some of her possessions, but cannot reveal the most sacred in public. Goro whispers that it is a sword sent by the Mikado to her father with the instruction to take his own life. He obeyed.
Butterfly says that she has converted to Pinkerton’s religion and renounced her own. Her family and friends – including her uncle, the Bonze, a priest – do not know yet.
The Commissioner reads out the marriage contract and the parties sign. Suddenly, the furious figure of the Bonze appears. Butterfly has renounced her religion and will be renounced by her friends and relatives, he tells her.
Night falls, and Butterfly dresses herself in her bridal robes. As they move towards the privacy of the house, Pinkerton sings of his excitement at her beauty, Butterfly of her great happiness.
ACT II
Inside Butterfly’s house, three years later
Pinkerton has deserted Butterfly. Rejecting her maid Suzuki’s doubts, she insists that her husband will come back. Sharpless arrives with Goro and a letter from Pinkerton. Butterfly’s incessant questions prevent him reading it. She tells him that Goro keeps bothering her with further marriage proposals.
The letter is to prepare Butterfly for bad news. Sharpless asks Butterfly a blunt question: what would she do if Pinkerton did not return? ‘Either go back to my trade as a geisha’, she tells him, ‘or – better – die’. She brings out her child, a boy, named Sorrow; Pinkerton knows nothing of him. Sharpless promises to inform him.
A harbour cannon announces the arrival of a new vessel. Butterfly looks through her telescope and recognises Pinkerton’s ship. She prepares to receive her husband and begins a night-long vigil.
ACT III
Dawn
Butterfly remains awake. Suzuki sends her to get some rest. Sharpless and a sheepish Pinkerton appear. Suzuki sees a woman waiting outside. Sharpless admits it is Pinkerton’s wife. He tries to persuade Suzuki to help Pinkerton obtain his child. Pinkerton, utterly ashamed, leaves.
Pinkerton’s wife Kate converses with Suzuki. Suddenly Butterfly appears, disconcerted. Sharpless introduces Kate as Pinkerton’s wife. Butterfly realises that she and Pinkerton want to take her child to America. She will only give him up, she says, if Pinkerton comes himself in half an hour.
Sending Suzuki away, she prepares to kill herself with her father’s sword. As a desperate attempt to save her life, Suzuki pushes the child into his mother’s presence. She sings an anguished farewell to him, blindfolds him, and stabs herself. Pinkerton, calling her name, enters the house.
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Characters
Madama Butterfly: also known as Cio-Cio-San, she is a trusting 15-year-old geisha who marries Lieutenant Pinkerton for love. He deserts her, and she bears his child after he has gone back to the US.
Soprano
Pinkerton: a Lieutenant in the US Navy, he takes a child-bride as a temporary measure while he is staying in Japan, all the while intending to forget her when he returns to his own country.
Tenor
Sharpless: the American consul in Nagasaki, he tries to make Pinkerton realise the potentially disastrous consequences of his actions.
Baritone
Suzuki: Butterfly’s faithful servant, she understands the reality of Cio-Cio-San’s position all too well.
Mezzo-soprano
Goro: a marriage broker, he facilitates the wedding between Pinkerton and Butterfly and finds him a house and servants. Later, he tries to persuade Butterfly to make another marriage.
Tenor
The Bonze: Butterfly’s uncle and a Buddhist monk, he is furious at her conversion to Christianity and orders her family and friends to renounce her.
Bass
Yamadori: a wealthy Japanese Prince, his offer to marry the deserted Butterfly is rejected.
Tenor