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''Madama Butterfly'' (''Madame Butterfly'') is an Opera in three acts (originally two acts) by Giacomo Puccini , with an Italian Libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa . The opera was based in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" (1898) by John Luther Long —which was turned into a play by David Belasco —and also on the novel '' Madame Chrysanthème '' (1887) by Pierre Loti . The first version of the opera premiered February 17 , 1904 at La Scala in Milan . It consisted of two acts and was very poorly received. On May 28 of that year, a revised version was released in Brescia . The revision split the disproportionately long second act in two, and included some other minor changes. In its new form Puccini's opera was a huge success; it crossed the Atlantic to the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1907. The opera belongs essentially to the city of Nagasaki , and according to American scholar Arthur Groos was based on events that actually occurred there in the early 1890s. Japan's best-known opera singer Miura Tamaki won international fame for her performances as Cio-Cio-san and her statue, together with that of Puccini, can be found in Nagasaki's Glover Garden . Today, the opera is enjoyed in two acts in Italy , while in America the three-act version is more popular. As a staple of the standard operatic repertoire, it appears at Number 1 on Opera America 's list of the 20 most-performed operas in North America. OPERA America's "The Top 20" list of most-performed operas ROLES SYNOPSIS (FINAL VERSION) :Time: 1904 . :Place: Nagasaki , Japan . Act I In the first act Lieutenant B.F. Pinkerton, a sailor with the who committed Seppuku , and so the little girl was sold to be trained as a geisha. The marriage Contract is signed and the guests are drinking a toast to the young couple when the Bonze , a Buddhist monk, (uncle of Cio-Cio-San) enters, uttering imprecations against her for having adhered to the foreign Faith . The bonze's curses induce her friends and relatives to abandon her. Pinkerton, annoyed, hurries the guests off, and they depart in anger. With loving words he consoles the weeping bride, and the two begin their new life happily. (Duet, Pinkerton, Butterfly: "Just like a little squirrel"; Butterfly: "But now, beloved, you are the world"; "Ah! Night of rapture.") Act II Pinkerton's tour of duty is over, and he has returned to the United States, after promising Butterfly to return "When the robins nest again." Three years have passed. Butterfly's faithful servant Suzuki rightly suspects that he has abandoned them, but is upbraided for want of faith by her trusting mistress. (Butterfly: "Weeping? and why?") Meanwhile, Sharpless has been sent by Pinkerton with a letter telling Butterfly that he has married an American wife. Butterfly (who cannot read English) is enraptured by the sight of her lover's letter and cannot conceive that it contains anything but an expression of his love. Seeing Butterfly's joy, Sharpless cannot bear to hurt her with the truth. When Goro brings Prince Yamadori, a rich suitor, to meet Butterfly, she refuses to consider his suit, telling them with great offense that she is already married to Pinkerton. Goro explains that a wife abandoned is a wife divorced, but Butterfly declares defiantly, "That may be Japanese custom, but I am now an American woman." Sharpless cannot move her, and at last, as if to settle all doubt, Butterfly proudly presents her fair-haired child. "Can my husband forget this?" she challenges. Butterfly explains that the boy's name is "Sorrow," but when his father returns, his name will be "Joy." The consul departs sadly. But Butterfly has long been a subject of gossip, and Suzuki catches the duplicitous Goro spreading more. Just as things cannot seem worse, distant guns salute the new arrival of a man-of-war, the ''Abraham Lincoln'', Pinkerton's ship. Butterfly and Suzuki, in great excitement, deck the house with flowers, and array themselves and the child in gala dress. All three peer through ''shoji'' doors to watch for Pinkerton's coming. As night falls, a long orchestral passage with choral humming (the "humming chorus") plays. Suzuki and the child gradually fall asleep - but Butterfly, alert and sleepless, never stirs. Act III Act three opens at dawn with Butterfly still intently watching. Suzuki awakens and brings the baby to her. (Butterfly: "Sweet, thou art sleeping.") Suzuki persuades the exhausted Butterfly to rest. Pinkerton and Sharpless arrive and tell Suzuki the terrible truth: Pinkerton has abandoned Butterfly for an American wife named Kate. The lieutenant is stricken with guilt and shame (Pinkerton: "Oh, the bitter fragrance of these flowers!"), but is too much of a coward to tell Butterfly himself. Suzuki, at first violently angry, is finally persuaded to listen as Sharpless assures her that Mrs. Pinkerton will care for the child if Butterfly will give him up. Pinkerton departs. Suzuki brings Butterfly into the room. She is radiant, expecting to find her husband, but is confronted instead by Pinkerton's new wife. As Sharpless watches silently, Kate begs Butterfly's forgiveness and promises to care for her child if she will surrender him to Pinkerton. Butterfly receives the truth with apathetic calmness, politely congratulates her replacement, and asks Kate to tell her husband that he must come in half an hour, and then he may have Sorrow, whose name will then be changed to Joy. She herself will "find peace." She bows her visitors out, and is left alone with young Sorrow. She bids a pathetic farewell to her child (Finale, Butterfly: "You, O beloved idol!"), blindfolds him, and puts a doll and small American flag in his hands. She takes her father's dagger--the weapon with which he made his suicide--and reads its inscription: "To die with Honour , when one can no longer live with honour." She takes the sword and a white scarf behind a screen, and emerges a moment later with the scarf wrapped round her throat. She embraces her child for the last time and sinks to the floor. Pinkerton and Sharpless rush in and discover the dying girl. The lieutenant cries out Butterfly's name in anguish as the curtain falls. NOTED ARIAS
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CRITICISMS Some criticism, such as that of Roger Parker, has described the opera as having racist overtones. Roger Parker, "One fine obscenity". ''The Guardian'', 13 February 2007. Since the 1990s, many have criticized or analyzed Madama Butterfly as part of a Colonialist project of creating images of Asia. These critics posit that it presents a "feminized" view of Asia in the form of Cio-Cio, and one that in the end of the play is discarded and inferior. These critics apparently disregard the fact that Butterfly is presented as the heroine (albeit tragic) and that the public is brought to sympathize with her plight and to revile Pinkerton's lyings and cowardice. One example of this critique is the Postmodernist version '' M. Butterfly ,'' by David Henry Hwang . Other critiques Amy Iggulden, "Opera expert says Puccini's Butterfly is 'racist' ", ''The Daily Telegraph'', 14 February 2007 center on the allegedly Anti-American tone of the play, written by an Italian and presented mostly for European audiences in the wake of the Spanish-American War . SOURCES
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