Puccini
Madame Butterfly
Madame Butterfly,"Puccini","Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (1904) follows Cio-Cio-San, a young Japanese woman who marries American naval officer Pinkerton, believing in his love. When he abandons her and later returns with an American wife, tragedy unfolds. Initially a failure at La Scala, the revised version soon became one of Puccini’s most beloved operas, admired for its emotional intensity and lyrical beauty."
First Performance:
Madama Butterfly,"Puccini","Premiered 17 February 1904 at La Scala, Milan. A catastrophic failure, booed heavily. Puccini withdrew and revised it; the new version soon became a worldwide success."
Historical setting:
Madama Butterfly,"Puccini","Composed amid Western fascination with Japan following its forced opening to global trade, Butterfly (1904) reflects orientalist attitudes and cultural imbalance. Inspired by Long’s story and Belasco’s play, it captures early 20th‑century anxieties about imperialism, identity, and cross‑cultural relationships."