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Madame Butterfly. My thoughts on opera. How in Japan they sold temporary wives or the real story of chio-chio-san Who is Madame Butterfly

Artfulness and love of the modern era

Madame Butterfly

The opera Cio-Cio-san (Madame Butterfly) is based on the short story by the American writer John L. Long, reworked by D. Belasco into a drama. After seeing the play during his stay in London, Puccini was thrilled by her life truthfulness. At his suggestion, the librettists L. Illika (1859-1919) and D. Jacoza (1847-1906) wrote an opera libretto based on the drama. Soon, music was created. At the first performance, held on February 17, 1904 in Milan, the opera, however, failed and was removed from the repertoire. The audience did not understand its content and was indignant at the excessive duration of the second act. Puccini reduced some numbers, divided the second act into two independent actions. Performed with these minor changes three months later, the opera was a triumphal success and quickly gained a strong reputation as one of the most popular modern operas.
The appeal to the plot from the life of distant Japan corresponded to the gravitation towards exoticism, widespread in European art of the late XIX and early XX centuries, the desire of artists to enrich their palette with new colors. But Puccini did not set himself the special task of reproducing the national Japanese flavor in music. The main thing for him was the image of touching human drama. In its embodiment, the composer was able not only to preserve, but also to deepen the content of the literary source.

Pinkerton, an American Navy lieutenant, became interested in a young Japanese woman, Cio-Cio-san, nicknamed Butterfly (in English - a butterfly) and decided to marry her. Goro - a professional Japanese matchmaker - shows him a house with a garden, shot for future spouses. Consul Sharples in vain warns his friend against a rash step. The lieutenant does not listen to persuasion: “Tearing flowers wherever possible” - such is his life philosophy. And Cio-Cio-san passionately loves her future husband. For his sake, she is ready to accept Christianity and go on a break with her family. In the presence of the imperial commissar, the wedding ceremony begins. She is interrupted by the angry voice of Bonza, Uncle Chio-Cio-san, who curses her niece. Left close, the girl weeps bitterly; Pinkerton consoles her.

Three years have passed since then. Pinkerton left shortly after the wedding; Cio-Cio-san is passionately awaiting his return. Abandoned by her husband, abandoned by her relatives, she lives with a servant and little son, whose existence Pinkerton does not even suspect. Cio-Cio-san suffers a need, but hope does not leave her. Goro and Sharpless come in, who received a letter from Pinkerton asking them to prepare Cio-Cio-san for hard news: he married an American. However, Sharples is unable to read the letter. Hearing that her husband is healthy and is due to arrive in Nagasaki, Chio-Chio-san interrupts him with a joyful exclamation. Prince Yamadori appears, for whom Goro intensively wooed Chio-Cio-san. Having received a polite refusal, he is forced to leave. Sharples advises her to accept Yamadori's offer; he hints that Pinkerton may not return, but the faith of the young woman is unshakable. A cannon shot is heard - this is a US ship entering the port where Pinkerton is supposed to arrive. In joyful excitement, Cio-Cio-san decorates the house with flowers and, waiting for her husband, peers into the lights of an approaching ship.

Night passed, but Cio-Cio-san waited in vain. Tired, she breaks away from the window and, rocking the child, falls asleep. There is a knock on the door. A happy servant sees Pinkerton accompanied by Sharpless, but with them a stranger. Sharples reveals the truth to Suzuki: this is Pinkerton’s wife, Kat. Upon learning that he had a son, Pinkerton came to pick him up. Hearing voices, Cio-Cio-san runs out of his room. Finally she understood what had happened. Shocked to the core, Cio-Cio-san listens to the will of the child's father. She agrees to give up the boy, but cannot survive the collapse of all her hopes. Gently saying goodbye to his son, Cio-Cio-san kills himself with a dagger.

The story of Madame Butterfly, put by Puccini at the base of the opera of the same name, has its roots in a rather deep past. In 1816, the Italian traveler Carletti wrote that as soon as foreign sailors molested the Japanese coast, "mediators and pimps who controlled all these processes called their wards and asked the sailors if they would like to rent, buy, or whatever then get a woman in a different way - for the time that they will spend in the harbor "; then a contract was concluded with the intermediary or the girl’s family. A similar practice continued with Dutch merchants: for two hundred and fifty years, they, as the only foreigners in Japan at that time, could live on the tiny artificial island of Dejma in Nagasaki harbor, using the services of the above "service". When the French navigator and writer Pierre Loti arrived in the Land of the Rising Sun in 1885, this tradition did not change at all - as evidenced by his detailed and rather popular novel, which narrated about his six-week “marriage” with a certain “Madame Chrysanthemum”.
Thus, it is not surprising that when the missionaries of the American Methodist Church, Irvine and Jenny Corrella, arrived in Japan in 1892, this practice first attracted their attention.
At first they were not in a hurry with stories on this subject; only much later did Jenny tell one incident - which, according to her, was told to her by the owner of a local store somewhere in 1895, and the story itself had happened more than twenty years earlier.

In 1897, Jenny went on vacation to America, where she stayed for a while in Philadelphia with her brother John Luther Long. The latter was a lawyer, however - considering himself a person who was not devoid of ability, he devoted a lot of time to literary works. Exactly one year after meeting with his sister, he published in the Century Illustrated Magazine a short story entitled Madame Butterfly, which was based on a real story from Nagasaki told by his sister.
Pretty soon, the story of Long awoke the imagination of playwright David Belasco - and turned into a play that Puccini saw in London in the summer of 1900; the composer was very impressed with the play "Madame Butterfly" and decided to write an opera on the same story.
The straightforward story and the few facts that Jenny Correll found out in Nagasaki were long and Belasco professionally crafted and structured into a novel and a dynamic one-act play - of course, by adding numerous "authentic" Japanese details (those, in turn, were largely borrowed from Loti’s novel “Madame Chrysanthemum.” Prototypes of characters such as Pinkerton, Goro and Suzuki clearly “emerged” from the above-mentioned novel); however, in the story of Long there are numerous real facts, for a long time unknown to the world, told by his sister.

She told her brother the following. Somewhere in the seventies of the XIX century, three Scottish brothers lived in Nagasaki: Thomas, Alex and Alfred Glovers. One of them (perhaps Alex - although it is impossible to say for sure, of course) had a romantic relationship with a Japanese woman named Kaga Maki, who entertained the audience in a local tea house under the name Cho-san, or Miss Butterfly. The fact that such relations with a foreigner at that time was perceived by others as a “temporary” marriage, we have already mentioned; such an union usually cost one hundred yen or twenty Mexican dollars, and a “marriage” could be easily dissolved at the behest of the “husband” at any time.
During a relationship with a Scot, Kaga Maki became pregnant, and on December 8, 1870, she gave birth to a son, calling him Shinsaburo. Father soon left the woman and the child, leaving Japan. After some time, the father's brother (Thomas) and Japanese Avaya Tsuru, with whom he lived in a civil marriage, took the child from Kag Maki; women of her profession were not allowed to raise children, and by a court decision they gave the child to Thomas and Avaya Tsuru - he became a member of the family in the house of his adoptive parents.
The name of the child was changed to Tomisaburo (in everyday life, calling him just Tom); he later became known as Tom Glover.
At the time when Jenny Correll lived in Nagasaki, Tom Glover, having completed his studies at the universities of Japan and America, returned to his hometown, where he settled, officially registering the new Japanese family of Gurab (this is the name of Glover in Japanese).
Those who knew that Tom Glover is the son of Butterfly remained silent, although John Luther Long acknowledged him in a private conversation. In the early thirties of the last century, Jenny Correll and the Japanese soprano Miura Tamaki (who sang the Butterfly lot many times, and a few years earlier discussed in private conversation with Long the real details of the whole story) were the only ones who could confirm this fact. In 1931, Tom Glover confirmed in an interview that his mother was Madame Butterfly; Japanese account registration studies have also confirmed this.

What happened to real people who served as prototypes for this drama? After her child was transferred to another family, Kaga Maki (Miss Cho-Cho-san) married the Japanese and left with him in another city. After some time, they divorced and she returned to Nagasaki, where she died in 1906.
Her son Tom Glover ("Dolore" in the opera) lived in Nagasaki, where he married a woman named Nakano Waka, the daughter of an English merchant; they had no children. Glover lost his wife during World War II.
The war years affected him hard: in August 1945, after the surrender of Japan, after the nightmare of the American atomic bombing of Nagasaki, he committed suicide.
Thus, the events of real life that formed the basis of Puccini's heartbreaking drama turned out to be almost more tragic than the opera itself. There is no evidence that Kaga Maki - the real Butterfly - has ever managed to see Tomisaburo again. Her son, whose name (Dolore, or Sorrow) in the opera was once supposed to change to Gioia (Joy), was haunted by misfortunes until his tragic death.
Having seen the staging of the Belasco play in London in June 1900, Puccini immediately sent the playwright a request for rights. However, for one reason or another, official issues were settled only by September next year. Meanwhile, the composer had already sent a copy of the story of Long Luigi Illike, who sketched a sketch of a two-act libretto. The first (originally planned as a Prologue), was entirely built according to the story of Long and showed the wedding of Pinkerton and Cho-Cho-san (which her friends called Butterfly); the second act was based on the events of the play of Belasco and was divided into three scenes, where the first and third took place in the Butterfly house, and the second in the American consulate.

When Giuseppe Giacosa began to put the libretto in poetic form, the Prologue developed into the First Act, and the first scene of the second part grew into the Second Act. Illika intended to leave the ending in agreement with Long's book (where Butterfly fails to commit suicide: her child suddenly runs in and Suzuki bandages her wounds) - but the final decision was made in favor of the terrible Belasco ending.
The libretto remained unfinished until November 1902 - and then Puccini, despite the passionate protests of Dzhakozy, decided to lower the stage at the American consulate, and with it the contrast between the atmosphere and culture of Japan and the West, which Illika so desired. Instead, the two remaining scenes were merged into one act, lasting an hour and a half.
Giacosa found this so incredible stupidity that he insisted on printing the missing text in the libretto; however, Ricordi did not agree.
Work on the work was interrupted in February 1903: an avid motorist Puccini had an accident and was seriously injured: his right leg was broken, which began to grow together incorrectly, and had to be broken again artificially; he recovered for a long time.
The score was completed in December, and at the same time, the premiere was scheduled for February next year with the finest composition: Rosina Storkio (Butterfly), Giovanni Zenatello (Pinkerton) and Giuseppe de Luca - Charples; Conductor - Cleofonte Campanini.

Despite the fact that both the singers and the orchestra showed a lot of enthusiasm in working on the preparation of the opera, the premiere became a nightmare; Puccini was accused of self-repetition and imitation of other composers. The composer immediately recalled the opera; quite confident in the merits of Butterfly, he nevertheless made some changes to the score - before allowing it to be performed anywhere else. Puccini threw out some details regarding the relationship of Butterfly in Act One, divided the long Act II into two parts with an interval, and added Pinkerton's arietta “Addio, fiorito asil”.
The second performance took place on May 28 of the same year at the Teatro Grande in Brescia; the composition of the soloists remained the same, with the exception of Rosina Storkio - Butterfly was performed by Salome Krushelnitskaya. This time the opera was expected to triumph.
However, Puccini continued to work on the score - mainly changes related to the First Act. The composer's refinements ended with the Parisian premiere given at the Opera-Comic on December 28, 1906 - it was these performances that formed the basis of the final printed version of the score.
On the advice of Albert Carré, the theater director and husband of the prima donna, Puccini softened Pinkerton's character by eliminating his harsh statements of a xenophobic nature, and also abandoned the confrontation between Butterfly and Kate - the latter, thus, acquired more attractive features. Be that as it may, at the beginning of this year, Ricordi had already published a clavier, in which you can find many original passages that were later discarded by the composer. Three of them - all from Act One - were restored for performances at the Milan Carcano Theater shortly after World War I with the approval of Puccini himself. Be that as it may, they were not reproduced in print again.

about the opera "Madame Butterfly"

Action I

Pinkerton, an American Navy lieutenant, became interested in the young geisha Chio-Cio-san, nicknamed the Butterfly, and decided to marry her according to the Japanese ritual. Such a marriage leaves him the opportunity to marry an American over time. Goro - a professional Japanese matchmaker - shows him a house with a garden, shot for future spouses. Consul Sharples in vain warns his friend against a rash step. The lieutenant does not listen to persuasion: "Pick flowers wherever possible" - such is his life philosophy. And Cio-Cio-san passionately loves her future husband. For his sake, she is ready to accept Christianity and go on a break with her family. In the presence of the imperial commissar, the wedding ceremony begins. She is interrupted by the angry voice of Bonza, Uncle Chio-Cio-san, who curses her niece. Left close, the girl is in dismay. Pinkerton consoles her.

Action II

Three years have passed since then. Pinkerton left shortly after the wedding; Cio-Cio-san is passionately awaiting his return. Abandoned by her husband, abandoned by her relatives, she lives with a maid and a small son. Cio-Cio-san suffers a need, but hope does not leave her. Sharpless arrives, who received a letter from Pinkerton asking him to prepare Cio-Cio-san for hard news: he married an American. Prince Yamadori appears, for whom Goro intensively wooed Chio-Cio-san. Having received a polite refusal, he is forced to leave. Sharpless advises Cio-Cio-san to accept Yamadori's offer; he hints that Pinkerton may not return, but the faith of the young woman is unshakable. Learning from the letter that her husband is healthy and should be arriving in Nagasaki soon, Chio-Cio-san interrupts him with a joyful exclamation. A cannon shot is heard - this is a US ship entering the port where Pinkerton is supposed to arrive. In joyful excitement, Cio-Cio-san decorates the house with flowers and, waiting for her husband, peers into the lights of a stopped ship.

Night passed, but Cio-Cio-san waited in vain. Tired, she breaks away from the window and carries away the sleeping child. There is a knock on the door. A happy servant sees Pinkerton accompanied by Sharpless, but with them a stranger. Sharples reveals the truth to Suzuki: this is Pinkerton’s wife, Kat. Upon learning that he had a son, Pinkerton came to pick him up. Hearing voices, Cio-Cio-san runs out of his room. Finally she understood what had happened. Shocked to the core, Cio-Cio-san listens to the will of the child's father. She agrees to give up the boy, but cannot survive the collapse of all her hopes. Gently saying goodbye to his son, Cio-Cio-san kills himself with a dagger.

Japanese tragedy in two acts
Giacomo Puccini on the libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica
based on the play by David Belasco's "Madame Butterfly" - based, in turn, on the story of John Luther Long - the latter, however, borrowed something from Pierre Loti's novel "Madame Chrysanthemum."

Premiere: Milan, La Scala, February 17, 1904 (edited version: Brescia, Teatro Grande, May 28, 1904).
Cio Cio San (Madame Butterfly) soprano
Suzuki, her servant mezzo-soprano
F. B. Pinkerton, US Navy lieutenant tenor
Sharpless, Consul of the United States at Nagasaki Baritone
Goro, a tenor marriage agent
Prince Yamadori Tenor
Bonza Uncle Cio Cio San Bass
Yakushida
Imperial commissioner bass
Bass recorder
Mother Cio Cio San Mezzo Soprano
Aunt soprano
Cousin soprano
Kate Pinkerton Mezzo Soprano
Dolore ("Sorrow"), son of Cio-Cio-San role without singing

Relatives, friends and acquaintances of Cio-Cio-San, a servant.
The action takes place in Nagasaki in the early twentieth century.

Thus, it is not surprising that when the missionaries of the American Methodist Church, Irvine and Jenny Corrella, arrived in Japan in 1892, this practice first attracted their attention.
At first they were not in a hurry with stories on this subject; only much later did Jenny tell one incident - which, according to her, was told to her by the owner of a local store somewhere in 1895, and the story itself had happened more than twenty years earlier.

Pretty soon, the story of Long awoke the imagination of playwright David Belasco - and turned into a play that Puccini saw in London in the summer of 1900; the composer was very impressed with the play "Madame Butterfly" and decided to write an opera on the same story.

The straightforward story and the few facts that Jenny Correll found out in Nagasaki were professionally crafted and structured into a novel and a dynamic one-act play - of course, by adding numerous “authentic” Japanese details (those, in turn, were largely borrowed from Loti’s novel “Madame Chrysanthemum.” Prototypes of characters such as Pinkerton, Goro and Suzuki clearly “emerged” from the above-mentioned novel); however, in the story of Long there are numerous real facts, for a long time unknown to the world, told by his sister.

During a relationship with a Scot, Kaga Maki became pregnant, and on December 8, 1870, she gave birth to a son, calling him Shinsaburo. Father soon left the woman and the child, leaving Japan. After some time, the father's brother (Thomas) and Japanese Avaya Tsuru, with whom he lived in a civil marriage, took the child from Kag Maki; women of her profession were not allowed to raise children, and by a court decision they gave the child to Thomas and Avaya Tsuru - he became a member of the family in the house of his adoptive parents.
The name of the child was changed to Tomisaburo (in everyday life, calling him just Tom); he later became known as Tom Glover.
While Jenny Correll lived in Nagasaki, Tom Glover, having completed his studies at the universities of Japan and America, returned to his hometown, where he settled, officially registering the new Japanese family of Guraba (as the name of Glover in Japanese sounds).

Those who knew that Tom Glover is the son of Butterfly remained silent, although John Luther Long acknowledged him in a private conversation. In the early thirties of the last century, Jenny Correll and the Japanese soprano Miura Tamaki (who sang the Butterfly lot many times, and a few years earlier discussed in real conversation in private with Long the real details of the whole story) were the only ones who could confirm this fact. In 1931, Tom Glover confirmed in an interview that his mother was Madame Butterfly; Japanese account registration studies have also confirmed this.

Her son Tom Glover ("Dolore" in the opera) lived in Nagasaki, where he married a woman named Nakano Waka, the daughter of an English merchant; they had no children. Glover lost his wife during World War II.
The war years affected him hard: in August 1945, after the surrender of Japan, after the nightmare of the American atomic bombing of Nagasaki, he committed suicide.

Thus, the events of real life that formed the basis of Puccini's heartbreaking drama turned out to be almost more tragic than the opera itself. There is no evidence that Kaga Maki - the real Butterfly - has ever managed to see Tomisaburo again. Her son, whose name (Dolore, or Sorrow) in the opera was once supposed to change to Gioia (Joy), was haunted by misfortunes until his tragic death.

Having seen the staging of the Belasco play in London in June 1900, Puccini immediately sent the playwright a request for rights. However, for one reason or another, official issues were settled only by September next year. Meanwhile, the composer had already sent a copy of the story of Long Luigi Illike, who sketched a sketch of a two-act libretto. The first (originally planned as a Prologue), was entirely built according to the story of Long and showed the wedding of Pinkerton and Cho-Cho-san (which her friends called Butterfly); the second act was based on the events of the play of Belasco and was divided into three scenes, where the first and third took place in the Butterfly house, and the second in the American consulate.

Giacosa found this so incredible stupidity that he insisted on printing the missing text in the libretto; however, Ricordi did not agree.

Work on the work was interrupted in February 1903: an avid motorist Puccini had an accident and was seriously injured: his right leg was broken, which began to grow together incorrectly, and had to be broken again artificially; he recovered for a long time.
The score was completed in December, and at the same time - the premiere was scheduled for February next year with the finest composition: Rosina Storkio (Butterfly), Giovanni Zenatello (Pinkerton) and Giuseppe de Luca - Charples; Conductor - Cleofonte Campanini.

The second performance took place on May 28 of the same year at the Teatro Grande in Brescia; the composition of the soloists remained the same, with the exception of Rosina Storkio - Butterfly was performed by Salome Krushelnitskaya. This time the opera was expected to triumph.

However, Puccini continued to work on the score - mainly changes related to the First Act. The composer's refinements ended with the Parisian premiere given at the Opera-Comic on December 28, 1906 - it was these performances that formed the basis of the final printed version of the score.

On the advice of Albert Carré, the theater director and husband of the prima donna, Puccini softened Pinkerton's character by eliminating his harsh statements of a xenophobic nature and also abandoned the confrontation between Butterfly and Kate - the latter, thus, acquired more attractive features. Be that as it may, at the beginning of this year, Ricordi had already published a clavier, in which you can find many original passages that were later discarded by the composer. Three of them - all from Act One - were restored for performances at the Milan Carcano Theater shortly after World War I with the approval of Puccini himself. Be that as it may, they were not reproduced in print again.

Part of the music from the manuscript was directed by Joachim Hertz in 1978, and the completely "early" version of Madame Butterfly was given at the La Fenice Theater in 1982 and at Leeds in 1991.

First act

Mountain near Nagasaki; in the foreground is a Japanese house with a terrace and a garden.

An orchestral fugato introduces the listener into a troublesome, fussy atmosphere; Goro shows the lieutenant Pinkerton the house in which, after marriage with Butterfly, he will have to settle with his chosen one, showing the lieutenant all the specific "bells and whistles" of the Japanese house, including sliding panels; Pinkerton finds them ridiculously fragile.
Pinkerton is introduced to the cook, the maid of Suzuki (the latter immediately begins to bother Pinkerton with her relentless crackling).
While Goro is expanding the list of wedding guests, a breathless Sharpless appears: he climbed the mountain from Nagasaki on foot. The characterizing motive draws its soft, not alien to good humor character.

By order of Goro, servants carry drinks and wicker chairs for Sharpless and Pinkerton. The latter explains that he bought the house for rent for ninety-nine years, but the contract can be broken at any time, notifying the intention for a month. In his solo "Dovunque al mondo" (he is surrounded by the initial bars of the American anthem "Star-Spangled Banner", which is later used as a leitmotif), Pinkerton expounds his (rather, simple, by the way) outlook on life. Like, a Yankee wandering the world should enjoy earthly joys wherever he finds them (“Not very complicated principles,” Sharpless notes to himself).

The lieutenant sends Goro to bring the bride, and he himself begins to spread, as they say, about the charms of her and her passionate passion for her. Sharpless recalls hearing her voice when she was visiting the consulate; his simple, sincere sounds touched him - and he hoped that Pinkerton would never bring suffering to the girl. (Hope, of course, is not harmful ...) Pinkerton chuckles at his doubts and torments - such, they say, typical of boring people of respectable age.

Both raise glasses of whiskey and toast - naturally, for America-mother! (The anthem motif reappears). The lieutenant immediately adds a small “trailer” to the patriotic toast: that day, they say, when he introduces his American wife.
Goro announces the imminent arrival of Butterfly and her friends; distant female voices are heard.

As the procession approaches, a brilliant theme unfolds in the orchestra, starting with a series of ascending sequences; each phrase ends with a solid chord, and then unfolds into a broad melody that subsides, turning into a sort of “ethnic-Japanese” pentatonic motif.
Butterfly, whose voice soared over the whole crowd of women, and - as it should be in all these Japanese ceremonies - bows to men. Sharpless will ask Butterfly about her family, about life. The girl says that she is fifteen years old (here Puccini must have grinned his mustache while writing the opera, imagining the dimensions of the dramatic sopranos that will play this part ...); she was born in a prosperous and wealthy family, but hard times came, and she had to start earning her bread on her own (the story "Nessuno si confessa mai nato in poverta") - so Butterfly became a geisha. The touched Sharpless warns Pinkerton again that he takes care of the girl and does not cause her grief.

Meanwhile, the guests are all arriving; Butterfly's mother, cousin, aunt and uncle Yakushida appear - the latter immediately requires a hefty portion of sake. Women exchange impressions of the bride's room - of course, not everyone likes her! - until, according to the Butterfly sign, they bow in a servile bow to Pinkerton and immediately dissolve without a trace.

Butterfly demonstrates to Pinkerton his touching “treasures” and souvenirs that she hides in the very capacious sleeves of her kimono: a clasp, clay pipe, belt, box of rouge (noticing Pinkerton’s mocking look, she throws it out right away), and the narrow sheath that she hurries brings in the house. Goro explains that a dagger is stored in these sheaths, with the help of which her father committed suicide on the orders of the emperor. Returning, she shows the figures in which the spirits of her ancestors live. However, Butterfly immediately adds that she has recently visited an American mission in order to abandon the faith of her ancestors and accept the religion of her beloved husband.

["Vieni, amor mio!" ] Goro calls for silence: the Imperial Commissioner announces the wedding, and everyone present makes a toast to the happiness of the young - "O Kami! O Kami!". (In the original version in this place was a hoppy arietta of the bitten sake Yakushida, who decided to punish the child for bad behavior). The holiday is interrupted by the appearance of Bonza; bursting in, he profusely curses Butterfly for renunciation of faith and conversion to Christianity. Bonza also curses her whole kin — apparently, for convincingness — no less thoroughly (Puccini embodies the terrible curse in a solid-toned motif of the orchestra).

Relatives and friends run away in horror; Pinkerton himself encourages those who are braver to the exit in a relative way with strong kicks.
Left alone with the bride, Pinkerton consoles her; you can hear Suzuki mumbling his evening prayers to these mysterious Japanese gods. The big, beautiful duet of the newlyweds “Viene la sera” follows, fancifully woven from several tunes - now ecstatic-enthusiastic, then touching-tender. Twice there is a “curse motive” - the first time Butterfly remembers how she broke up with her family, and the second - when she suddenly talks about how often the most beautiful butterflies are stitched with a collector's pin. The duet ends with a grandiose reprise of the theme that sounded in the orchestra at the time of the first Butterfly appearance.
[Listen to the duet (for convenience divided into three parts): "Viene la sera"; "Bimba dagli occhi pieni di malia"; "Vogliatemi bene, un bene piccolino"]

Second act

First picture
In the Butterfly House; three years have passed.

Butterfly alone, with Suzuki - she prays to her mysterious Japanese gods that her mistress’s suffering will soon end. Butterfly sarcastically remarks that these gods are terribly lazy; the Pinkerton God is another matter! He will come soon and help her - if only he only knows how to find her!

All their money was almost over, and Suzuki doubts (surprisingly robust, by the way!) That Pinkerton will ever return.
The angry Butterfly resembles a maid’s servant how Pinkerton arranged the payments for the house through the consul, how he put the locks on the door, and how he promised to return as soon as the “first swallows began to twist their nests”.

In her famous aria "On a beautiful, long-awaited day" ["Un bel di vedremo"], she talks about the imminent return of the lieutenant and about her future joy.
But then Goro and Sharpless appear; in the last in his hands is a letter from Pinkerton. Butterfly joyfully and cordially invites them to the house, and then asks Sharpless if he knows how many times a year in this distant and mysterious America swallows make their nests? The consul is confused and somehow responds very vaguely ...

Prince Yamadori appears with a marriage proposal, but Butterfly mockingly rejects his courtship: she is a married woman according to the laws of America, where divorce (as she is sure) is a crime punishable by justice.
Yamadori leaves, and Sharpless begins reading the letter, in which Pinkerton says that he intends to leave Butterfly forever - however, she can not understand the contents of the letter, and Sharpless stops reading. He asks Butterfly what she would do if Pinkerton never returned to her - she replies that she could, of course, return to the profession of a geisha, but rather would have committed suicide.

Sharpless angered her with his advice to accept Yamadori's offer; she rushes into the next room and brings the child, whose father is Pinkerton. Amazed and moved to the depths of his soul, Sharpless promises to inform Pinkerton about this and leaves.

Suzuki drags by the scruff of the neck (or by the sleeve, much depends on the director) Goro; she "caught" one when he spread slanderous and insulting gossip about the possible paternity of a child. Butterfly threatens to kill him, but then lets him go, not hiding her contempt.
A gun shot in the harbor announces the arrival of the ship. At the "Un bel di" orchestral reprisal, Butterfly grabs a telescope and sees the name "Abraham Lincoln" on board the incoming vessel - this is Pinkerton’s warship! They, from Suzuki, winged, go out onto the veranda with the duo "Scuoti quella fronda di ciliegio".
Decorating himself as "on our wedding day", Butterfly prepares for a long night of waiting; Suzuki with a child are arranged side by side.
In the singing of an invisible choir (behind the scenes), a musical theme revives without words, on which Sharpless tried to read Pinkerton's letter. It's getting dark.

The second picture

Interlude (in the original, it was combined with the previous howls of the choir), paints Butterfly's disturbing thoughts. Under the distant cries of the sailors, the sun rises - Butterfly, Suzuki and the child are in exactly the same position and position as the sunset caught them.
Butterfly sings a lullaby and carries the child to the next room - where he almost instantly falls asleep.

Pinkerton and Sharpless appear; Suzuki notices some woman in the garden - and Sharpless reports that this is Kate, Pinkerton’s wife. They want, according to the consul, to pick up the child in order to give him a "good American upbringing." (We all know the price for him, right? ..)
At the same time, Sharpless reproaches the lieutenant for his heartlessness. Pinkerton pours out his remorse, confusion and repentance in the arietta "Addio, fiorito asil" (added by Puccini for staging in Brescia) - and then cowardly "molts", unable to look into the eyes of his wife and bride, whom he so cruelly betrayed.
Butterfly enters - and meets face to face with Sharpless, Suzuki, and Kate. When she finally understands everything that happens, in all ruthlessness - she asks those present to leave and return in half an hour. Then Butterfly forever says goodbye to the child - and retreating behind the screen, inflicts a mortal blow with a dagger - the very one that her father had once committed suicide. Pinkerton's voice is heard, desperately calling out her name.

In this opera, Puccini’s ability (so necessary for the opera composer) to convert a rather stilted (albeit pathetic) piece, cut according to sound stencils, into an impressive and large-scale musical drama was manifested with all its brightness.

Why Puccini, with rare exceptions, focused on women's suffering in his work, why in most cases he “killed” his heroines in the finale of the opera is probably a topic for another study. But in Butterfly Puccini, along with his librettists (who, as always, worked under his supervision and dictatorship), brought out a tragic figure of an extraordinary scale, going through the opera’s crucifix from almost childlike innocence to an “adult” understanding of the reality of this life, from resentment and protest - to the silent and noble acceptance of one's fate; and suicide Butterfly becomes not an act of despair of a weak girl, but the apotheosis of the affirmation by the person of his moral principles, his code of honor over the vain realities of both civilizations - eastern and western.

In many ways, Butterfly became the pinnacle of the gallery of the fragile and suffering Puccini heroines; perhaps the closest to her character was only one more heroine - slave Liu in Turandot.

Puccini used at least seven original Japanese folk tunes in Madame Butterfly. Thus, the composer not only recreated the "authentic Oriental atmosphere", but also expanded his own musical language, for Puccini did not quote any melody, but seemed to be woven, "implanted" in his sophisticated and whimsical own style.
The scale of musical images, the whimsicality of the musical language of Puccini in this opera significantly exceeds everything that he wrote before. The love duet in Act One, for example, is the longest and most fancifully finished of all duets ever written by Puccini.

Although the leitmotifs and “leitharmonies” still play an important role in this work of the composer, their use is no longer as straightforward as, say, in canonical Wagnerian opuses. In the already mentioned example (the second note example on this page), the theme of the “curse” is far from always connected with Bonza, but turns into the image of rock as such; and the theme that arises when Butterfly first appears is fully developed the moment she tells Pinkerton about her visit to the American mission in order to renounce her religion and accept her husband’s faith ("Io seguo il mio destino") - that is, at its first appearance, this motive did not yet bear the emotional and semantic load with which it begins to be associated with the development of the drama. In his later works, Puccini more and more used this technique - the use of “multilayer” and “multisense” motifs and harmonic sequences devoid of straightforward figurative associations or rigidly fixed personal characteristics.

As mentioned above, the premiere was greeted by the screeching and hooting of the public - this failure (as we well know from history, those operas that subsequently became recognized textbook masterpieces “failed” too were probably “directed” by rivals - the publisher Sondzonyo and those composers that were published with him.

The morning after the nightmarish premiere, Puccini wrote: “... It was just Lynch’s trial! These cannibals didn’t listen to a single note. What a terrifying orgy of crazy, intoxicated with hatred! However, my Butterfly remains what it was: the most deeply felt and artistic of all the operas I have written! "

Nevertheless, editing the opera to be presented at the Teatro Grande in Brescia on May 28, 1904, Puccini received an unprecedented success with almost the same composition of the soloists as in La Scala - with the exception of the main character, whose part was perfectly performed by Salomia Krushelnitskaya. The composer was bowed ten times.

Abroad, Madame Butterfly was first performed in Buenos Aires, with Arturo Toscanini at the console and Rosina Storkio in the title part. Other productions of 1904 took place in Montevideo and Alexandria. On June 10, 1905, the opera was delivered to Covent Garden (with Emma Destinn and Enrico Caruso) - since then, Butterfly has been held in Covent Garden more than three hundred times. This was followed by Cairo, Budapest, Washington and Paris. The opera was first staged at the Mariinsky Theater on January 4, 1913.

Puccini called Madame Butterfly his favorite opera, and did not miss a single opportunity to listen to her in theaters.
However, new ideas, images of a new, different “exotic”, gradually formed in his imagination: the next opera entitled “Girl from the Golden West” ...

Cyril Veselago

Opera in three (originally two) acts

Composer: Giacomo Puccini

Libretto (in Italian): Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illiki

Characters:

MADAM BUTTERFLY (CHIO-CHIO-SAN) (soprano)
SUZUKI, her maid (mezzo-soprano)
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN PINKERTON, Navy lieutenant (tenor)
KET PINKERTON, his wife (mezzo-soprano)
SHARPLES, US Consul in Nagasaki (baritone)
GORO, broker-swat (tenor)
PRINCE JAMADORI, rich Japanese (baritone)
UNCLE CHIO-CHIO-SAN, bonza (bass)
COMMISSION (bass)
REGISTRATION OFFICER (baritone)

Time of action: circa 1900.

Scene: Nagasaki.

ACTION I

At the turn of the century, about forty-five years before the atomic bomb destroyed Nagasaki, this port city was a pretty nice place. A charming Japanese villa stands on a hillside overlooking the bay. A Japanese real estate trader and an American naval officer came to her garden, where the opera begins. This is a trader Goro, a broker-swat, an officer - lieutenant of the American Navy. Goro arranged the wedding of the lieutenant and now shows him a house that is rented for 999 years (of course, with Pinkerton's convenient clause that it is possible to refuse this clause of the contract). The wedding contract, by the way, contains a similar clause stating that the contract is temporary.
A guest arrives - the US consul in Nagasaki, Mr. Sharples, he is trying to convince Pinkerton that there is a danger in such a device: he knows the future wife, her name is Chio-Cio-san, or Madame Butterfly, and he is worried that in the end her tender heart will be broken. But Pinkerton is not going to take all this seriously, and even offers a toast for the day when he really gets married - in the United States.
The time has come for the present marriage ceremony. Pinkerton and Sharpless go deep into the stage and look down at the path leading up the hill, from where soft, cheerful voices come. The Butterfly’s voice is heard, floating above the dense harmonious sound of the voices of the friends accompanying her (geisha). And so they all appear on stage. She tells Pinkerton about herself and her family that she only has a mother and that she is unhappy: "Her poverty is so terrible." She reports her age (she’s only fifteen years old), shows him all sorts of trinkets - figurines that she wears in a wide sleeve of a kimono (“These are the souls of ancestors,” Butterfly explains), including the dagger with which her father committed suicide by the order of the Mikado. Butterfly, with all the fervor of a young heart, confesses to Pinkerton that she decided to accept his faith: "I will be your work god, becoming your wife." She throws herself into Pinkerton's arms. Meanwhile, Goro pushed the frames apart, turning the small rooms into one large hall. Here, everything is ready for the marriage ceremony. Sharples and officials are present. Butterfly enters the room and kneels. Pinkerton stands beside her. Relatives Butterfly stayed in the garden, they all kneel. The imperial commissioner performs a brief ceremony of the ceremony, and everyone sings a toast to a happy couple. Suddenly, the fun is interrupted by the appearance of a formidable figure. This is Bonza, Uncle Butterfly, Japanese priest; he learned that the missionary had a butterfly and intended to abandon his traditional religion in favor of Christianity. Now he has come to lead her away from here. All relatives are on the side of the bonza. Bonza curses Butterfly. Her mother is trying to protect her, but the bonza rudely removes her and approaches the Butterfly with a menacing look, shouting her curse directly into her face. Pinkerton intervenes in the course of events, ordering everyone to remain silent. Uncle Bonza stops stricken, then suddenly, having made a decision, he demands that relatives and friends leave this house. Pinkerton also orders everyone to leave. Confused, guests leave the bride and groom. Mother is trying to approach Butterfly again, but she is carried away by other relatives. The action ends with a long wonderful love duet - Butterfly forgets about his worries. Night. Clear starry sky. Pinkerton sits on a bench in the garden. Butterfly approaches him. They are declared to each other in love. Together, they - the lieutenant and the Butterfly (now Madame Pinkerton) - enter their new home.

ACTION II

Three years have passed since Pinkerton left, but there was not a single word from him. Suzuki, who is praying for Butterfly to her Japanese gods, is trying to convince her mistress that he will never return. At first, Madame Butterfly is angry, but then she sings her famous ecstatic aria “Un bel di vedremo” (Desired On A Clear Day), which describes in detail how one day he will sail to the bay, climb the hill and meet his beloved again to the wife.
Soon a guest arrives - Sharples, American Consul. “Madame Butterfly ...” he addresses her. “Madame Pinkerton,” she corrects him. He has a letter that he wants to read to her, but Butterfly is so hospitable that he cannot do it. They are interrupted by a wedding broker, Goro, who came with the consul, but wandered around the garden all this time. He brought Prince Yamadori with him, wishing to marry Butterfly. The lady politely but firmly refuses the prince. Sharpless, meanwhile, again attempts to read the letter. After all, it says that Pinkerton married an American, but the consul is not able to utter these tragic words - he reads out loud (in a duet) only part of the letter. For a moment, it seemed to her that the best answer would be to commit suicide. Sharpless gently advises her to accept the prince's offer. This is impossible, she insists, and provides an explanation for this. This is her son, and his name is Suffering (Dolore). But this, she adds, only for now. When the father returns, the baby will be called Happiness (Gioia). Absolutely distressed Charles leaves.
A cannon shot is heard in the harbor. This arrives an American ship - Pinkerton's ship "Abraham Lincoln"! With joy Butterfly and Suzuki decorate the house and sing a wonderful duet (“floral” duet “Let the flowers with their petals ...”). Now they are waiting for the arrival of the owner. Butterfly, Suzuki and little Suffering peer into the night bay, awaiting the arrival of the ship. The butterfly makes three holes in paper frames: one for itself, another, lower for Suzuki, a third, even lower, for the child who is sitting on the pillow, making him a sign so that he looks through the hole made. A beautiful melody sounds (it was already used in a duet with a letter) - it is performed by an orchestra and the choir backstage sings without words, painting the silence of the night. Thus ends the second action.

ACTION III

The beginning of the third action finds Suzuki, Butterfly and the baby Suffering in the same place where they were at the end of the second. Only now the baby and the maid, tired, fell asleep; Butterfly still stands motionless and peers into the harbor. Morning. Noise is heard from the port. Butterfly takes his sleeping baby to another room; she sings him a lullaby. Consul Sharpless enters the garden, accompanied by Lieutenant Pinkerton and Kat Pinkerton, his American wife. Suzuki immediately understands who she is. She does not dare to say this to her mistress. Pinkerton also. He sings, and his farewell to his once happy home sounds unusually passionate. He's leaving. At this moment, Cio-Cio-san appears, she sees Kat and understands what a tragedy awaits her. With dignity, she tells Kat that she can pick up her son if Pinkerton comes after him - "Father’s will is sacred."
Left alone with the baby, she knows the only thing she needs to do. She puts her son on the mat with his face to the left, gives him the American flag and a doll, offering him to play it, at the same time carefully blindfolds his eyes. Then he leaves behind the screen and there he sticks his father’s dagger, which she always carried with her (she showed it in the first action). And at the moment when she hugs her son for the last time, Pinkerton rushes into the room with a cry of despair: "Butterfly, Butterfly!" But of course he was late. He kneels near her body. In the orchestra, an Asian melody rattles, symbolizing a fatal outcome; she sounded whenever death was mentioned.

Action one

Pinkerton, an American Navy lieutenant, became interested in a young Japanese woman named Cio-Cio-san, called Butterfly (in English, a butterfly), and decided to marry her. Mountain-professional Japanese matchmaker - shows him a house with a garden, shot for future spouses. Consul Sharples in vain warns his friend against a rash step. The lieutenant does not listen to persuasion: "Tearing flowers wherever possible," - such is his life philosophy. And Cio-Cio-san passionately loves her future husband. For his sake, she is ready to accept Christianity and go on a break with her family. In the presence of the imperial commissar, the wedding ceremony begins. She is interrupted by the angry voice of Bonza, Uncle Chio-Cio-san, who curses her niece. Left close, the girl weeps bitterly; Pinkerton consoles her.

Action two

3 years have passed since then. Pinkerton left shortly after the wedding; Cio-Cio-san is passionately awaiting his return. Abandoned by her husband, abandoned by her relatives, she lives with a servant and little son, whose existence Pinkerton does not even suspect. Cio-Cio-san suffers a need, but hope does not leave her. Goro and Sharpless come in, who received a letter from Pinkerton asking them to prepare Cio-Cio-san for hard news: he married an American. However, Sharples is unable to read the letter. Hearing that her husband is healthy and is due to arrive in Nagasaki, Chio-Chio-san interrupts him with a joyful exclamation. Prince Yamadori appears, for whom Goro intensively wooed Chio-Cio-san. Having received a polite refusal, he is forced to leave. Sharples advises her to accept Yamadori's offer; he hints that Pinkerton may not return, but the faith of the young woman is unshakable. A cannon shot is heard - this is a US ship entering the port where Pinkerton is supposed to arrive.

In joyful excitement, Cio-Cio-san decorates the house with flowers and, waiting for her husband, peers into the lights of an approaching ship.

Action Three

Night passed, but Cio-Cio-san waited in vain. Tired, she breaks away from the window and, rocking the child, falls asleep. There is a knock on the door. A happy servant sees Pinkerton accompanied by Sharpless, but with them is an unknown lady. Sharples reveals the truth to Suzuki: this is Pinkerton’s wife, Kat. Upon learning that he had a son, Pinkerton came to pick him up. Hearing voices, Cio-Cio-san runs out of his room. Finally she understood what had happened. Shocked to the core, Cio-Cio-san listens to the will of the child's father. She agrees to give up the boy, but cannot survive the collapse of all her hopes. Gently saying goodbye to his son, Cio-Cio-san kills himself with a dagger.