Opera · Italian opera

Madama Butterfly

17 February 1904, Teatro alla Scala, Milan

Giacomo Puccini · libretto by Illica and Giacosa, after Belasco

A fifteen-year-old geisha in Nagasaki marries an American naval lieutenant who treats the contract as a holiday arrangement. She waits three years with their child; when his ship returns he has an American wife with him, and she kills herself with her father's sword.

How to spot them

▸A hillside house above Nagasaki harbour, around 1900: a marriage broker, a 999-year lease, and a disowned bride
▸Soprano heroine of punishing length, tenor naval officer, baritone consul, mezzo maid
▸The famous moment: the heroine keeps an all-night vigil at the paper screens while a wordless chorus hums
▸Quiz clues: Belasco, a fiasco at La Scala, "The Star-Spangled Banner" quoted in the orchestra, and Miss Saigon

Arias & moments — listen

"Un bel dì, vedremo" (1904)

"One fine day" — she describes exactly how his ship will appear on the horizon; sung here by Rosa Ponselle in 1919

Recording: Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924), Luigi Illica (1857–1919) and Giuseppe Giacosa (1847–1906) · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

"Ancora un passo or via" (1904)

The bride's entrance, climbing the hill with her friends, floated high above the orchestra

Recording: Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924), Luigi Illica (1857–1919), Giuseppe Giacosa (1847–1906), Frances Alda (1879–1952) · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

The Humming Chorus and Intermezzo (1904)

An offstage wordless chorus covers the night vigil, running straight into the orchestral interlude before the last scene

Recording: Unknown · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

"Viene la sera" — the Act I love duet (1904)

The long night duet that closes the wedding act, the longest love duet Puccini wrote

The Flower Duet, "Scuoti quella fronda di ciliegio" (1904)

Mistress and maid strip the garden to strew petals through the house for a homecoming that will not happen

"Addio, fiorito asil" (1904)

The tenor's short, guilty farewell to the little house before he flees the scene

Quick-fire facts

•The first version, in two acts, was a fiasco at La Scala on 17 February 1904, with whistling and catcalls from the gallery.
•Puccini revised it into three acts for Brescia's Teatro Grande on 28 May 1904, where it triumphed; a further revision followed for Paris in 1906.
•The source is David Belasco's one-act play Madame Butterfly, itself based on a story by John Luther Long; Puccini saw the play in London without understanding the English.
•The librettists were again Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa.
•The principals are Cio-Cio-San (soprano), Lieutenant B. F. Pinkerton of the US Navy (tenor), Sharpless the consul (baritone) and Suzuki the maid (mezzo).
•Puccini quotes "The Star-Spangled Banner" — then the US Navy's anthem — for Pinkerton, and wove in genuine Japanese melodies.
•The Humming Chorus is sung offstage, with the singers' mouths closed, to cover the passing of the night.
•Cio-Cio-San kills herself with the dagger with which her father committed seppuku, bearing the inscription about dying with honour.
•The musical Miss Saigon (1989) relocates the plot to the fall of Saigon.

Drill it — 9 cards

1 / 9new card

Sources

Grove Music Online (Oxford University Press) — Madama Butterfly
Julian Budden — Puccini: His Life and Works
Stanley Sadie (ed.) — The New Grove Dictionary of Opera