What's the story American Lieutenant BF Pinkerton is stationed in Nagasaki Bay, Japan. To make the time pass more happily, he contracts a temporary ‘marriage’ with a fifteen-year-old geisha girl, Cio-Cio-San (known as Butterfly). This is nothing unusual in Nagasaki – the only problem is that Butterfly believes the marriage will last forever. She converts to Christianity and defies her uncle’s disapproval. Three years later, Pinkerton has long gone, but Butterfly still waits, now with a little son. Her servant Suzuki and the American consul Sharpless try to prepare Butterfly for the worst, especially when Pinkerton does return, but with a new American wife. The couple want to adopt the little boy. Butterfly has to relinquish her last hope, and kills herself.

Why should we care? Although Cio-Cio-San is only fifteen when the opera begins, this frail adolescent contains adult passions – Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) confessed that his favourite dramatic territory was ‘great griefs in small souls.’ Indeed, Madam Butterfly is all about littleness shattered by uncaring immensity. Japan had only begun to welcome western visitors in the1860s, and was considered a delicate culture by the west. In the little house with its paper screens, Butterfly and Suzuki cover the floor with blossoms to welcome Pinkerton: everything seems fragile, horribly easy to crush, and Butterfly herself wonders at westerners who impale exotic butterflies on pins for display. Japan in this opera is fragile and feminine, against powerful, masculine America. While Butterfly serves tea, Pinkerton and Sharpless slug whisky and toast ‘America forever!’ Butterfly became a geisha after her disgraced father committed hara-kiri, and the story represents the thriving Japanese custom of allowing temporary wives in ports. Visiting sailors could, like Pinkerton, arrange a ‘marriage’ with a geisha that would last for as long as they were in town. Butterfly’s tragic mistake is to read romance into a commercial transaction. Puccini presents a stark culture clash, a vivid picture of American imperialism where the personal is devastatingly political.

What does it sound like? Puccini researched Japanese music and culture with great enthusiasm, and asked the Japanese ambassador’s wife to sing some traditional songs for him as he prepared to begin work. The orchestra includes bells and gongs, with the woodwind encouraged to produce a high-pitched sound recalling traditional Japanese instruments and temple-music. Pinkerton’s own native music is there too, as Puccini quotes ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’. Between her wedding and suicide, most of Butterfly’s time is spent waiting. Her steadfast vigil is accompanied by a lulling wordless humming offstage, as she bolsters her patience with sweet dreams of lovers reunited. The lieutenant’s tenor music, however, lives in the moment – his is the voice of immediate gratification. Puccini wanted Pinkerton to sound American – this tempting, deceptive promise may be what he meant. Butterfly’s ‘Un bel dì’ (‘One fine day’), in contrast, floats forever, violins murmuring in background. The composer drastically revised Madam Butterfly after the disastrous premiere, cutting some of Pinkerton’s callous indifference to Butterfly. Modern productions often restore these cuts, as we finally catch up with Puccini.

Other stuff Madam Butterfly was Puccini’s own favourite among his operas. The libretto was by Giacosa and Illica, who also wrote La bohème and Tosca. The première at La Scala Milan in 1904 was scrapped after it faced a jeering audience and ferocious reviews. Puccini, who was recovering from a serious motor accident, was in tears next day. Based on a true-life novella by John Luther Long (1898). The real-life abandoned geisha attempted suicide and then converted to Christianity – while the real ‘Pinkerton’ may have actually been a Russian naval officer. David Belasco turned the story into a hit play. When Puccini saw it in London, he immediately begged for permission to set it to music. Belasco agreed, ‘because it is not possible to discuss business arrangements with an impulsive Italian who has tears in his eyes and both his arms around your neck.’ Belasco’s parents were British immigrants to the California gold rush. He wrote around seventy plays, but was frequently sued for plagiarism. Puccini also turned his The Girl of the Golden West into an opera. A statue of Butterfly was erected in Nagasaki after the war. The successful West End musical Miss Saigon is based on (and inspired by) the story of Madam Butterfly

Exploring further - links Madam Butterfly (English National Opera guide) includes the libretto and the original novella by John Luther Long. Madame Chrysanthème by Pierre Loti (Indypublish.com), a nineteenth-century French novel describing the temporary wives custom. Puccini by Mosco Carner (Duckworth), a magisterial biography of the composer. Madam Butterfly (1932), film by Marion Gering with Cary Grant as Pinkerton. M Butterfly (1993), a disorienting film by David Cronenberg. Jeremy Irons plays a diplomat who falls in love with a Beijing opera singer.