Operas by Giacomo Puccini

Le Villi (1884) Edgar (1889) Manon Lescaut (1893) La bohème (1896) Tosca (1900) Madama Butterfly (1904) La fanciulla del West (1910) La rondine (1917) Il trittico: Il tabarro (1918) Il trittico: Suor Angelica (1918) Il trittico: Gianni Schicchi (1918) Turandot (1926) Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini (December 22, 1858 – November 29, 1924) was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Le villi (The Willis) is an opera composed by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Ferdinando Fontana, based on the short story Les Willis by Alphonse Karr. ... Edgar is an opera in three acts (originally four acts) by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Ferdinando Fontana, based on the play in verse La Coupe et les lèvres by Alfred de Musset. ... Manon Lescaut is an opera in four acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Domenico Oliva and Luigi Illica, based on L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by Abbé Prévost. ... For other uses, see La bohème (disambiguation). ... Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Victorien Sardous drama, La Tosca. ... La Fanciulla del West (The Girl of the Golden West) is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Guelfo Civinini and Carlo Zangarini, based on the play The Girl of the Golden West by David Belasco. ... A poster for the Italian premiere. ... Il trittico (The Triptych) is the title to a collection of three one-act operas, Il tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi, by Giacomo Puccini. ... Il tabarro (The Cloak) is an opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Adami, based on Didier Golds La Houppelande. ... Il trittico (The Triptych) is the title to a collection of three one-act operas, Il tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi, by Giacomo Puccini. ... Suor Angelica (Sister Angelica) is an opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an original Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano. ... Il trittico (The Triptych) is the title to a collection of three one-act operas, Il tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi, by Giacomo Puccini. ... Gianni Schicchi is an opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, based on a story that is referred to in Dantes The Divine Comedy. ... For the opera by Ferruccio Busoni, see Turandot (Busoni). ...

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 Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Italy. ... Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini (December 22, 1858 – November 29, 1924) was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire. ... Antonio Ghislanzoni, nineteenth century Italian librettist. ... Born: CastellArquato, near Piacenza, Italy, 9 May 1857 Died: Colombarone, Italy, 16 Dec. ... Giuseppe Giacosa Giuseppe Giacosa (21 October 1847 – 1 September 1906) was an Italian poet, playwright and librettist. ... Madama Butterfly (or sometimes Madame Butterfly in English) is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, set in Japan. ... John Luther Long (1861-1927) was an American lawyer and writer remembered (if he is remembered at all) for his short story Madame Butterfly based on the recollections of his sister, Mrs. ... David Belasco, between 1898 and 1916. ... Portrait of Pierre Loti, by Henri Rousseau, 1891 Louis Marie Julien Viaud (January 14, 1850 - June 10, 1923) was a French sailor and writer, who used the pseudonym 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. is the 48th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1904 (MCMIV) was a leap year starting on a Friday (see link for calendar). ... The Teatro alla Scala in Milan, by night. ... For other uses, see Milan (disambiguation). ... May 28 is the 148th day of the year (149th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Italian administrative area, see Province of Brescia. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, the lead section of this article may need to be expanded. ...

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. Nagasaki ) ( ) is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture in Japan. ... Miura Tamaki (b. ... uyhv08yv8vy-8yv-8yv-8yvb-8yvb-8yv-8yv-8yv08yv08yv0-8yv-8yiv-8yvb-08vyb-8y9ibv-p9un ...

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 on Opera America's list of the 20 most-performed operas in North America^[1], where it appears at Number 1 as the most often performed. Motto: (Out Of Many, One) (traditional) In God We Trust (1956 to date) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington D.C. Largest city New York City None at federal level (English de facto) Government Federal constitutional republic  - President George Walker Bush (R)  - Vice President Dick Cheney (R) Independence from... Opera America, officially OPERA America, is a service organization in North America promoting the creation, presentation, and enjoyment of opera. ...

Roles

Cleofonte Campanini (September 1, 1860-December 19, 1919) was an Italian conductor. ... This article is about the singing voice part. ... Rosina Storchio (1876–1945) was an Italian soprano who starred in the world premieres of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Leoncavallo’s La bohème and Zazà, Mascagni’s Lodoletta, and Giordano’s Siberia. ... A mezzo-soprano (meaning medium soprano in Italian) is a female singer with a range usually extending from the A below middle C to the F an eleventh above middle C. Mezzo-sopranos generally have a darker (or lower) vocal tone than sopranos, and their vocal range is between that... A tenor is a singer with a voice range from approximately C3 (one octave below middle C) to A4 (above middle C) in choral music, or to tenor C (C5, one octave above middle C) or higher in operatic music (see voice type). ... Giovanni Zenatello (2 February 1876 - 11 February 1949) was an Italian opera singer. ... Baritone (French: ; German: ; Italian: ) is most commonly the type of male voice that lies between bass and tenor. ... Giuseppe de Luca, an Italian baritone, was born in Rome in 1876 and died in New York in 1950. ... A bass (or basso in Italian) is a male singer who sings in the deepest vocal range of the human voice. ...

Synopsis (final version)

:Time: 1904. Image File history File links Hohenstein_Madama_Butterfly. ... 1904 (MCMIV) was a leap year starting on a Friday (see link for calendar). ...

Place: Nagasaki, Japan.

Nagasaki ) ( ) is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture in Japan. ...

Act I

In the first act Lieutenant B.F. Pinkerton, a sailor with the USS Abraham Lincoln in the port of Nagasaki marries Cio-Cio-San [tʃotʃosan], or as known by her friends, "Butterfly," a 15-year-old Japanese geisha. The Matchmaker Goro has arranged the wedding contract and rented a little hillside house for the newlyweds. The American consul Sharpless, a kind man, begs Pinkerton to forgo this plan, when he learns that Butterfly innocently believes the marriage to be binding. (In fact, both the marriage and the lease on the house may be canceled at short notice) The lieutenant laughs at Sharpless's concern, and the bride appears with her friends, joyous and smiling. Sharpless learns that, to show her trust in Pinkerton, she has renounced the faith of her ancestors and so she can never return to her own people. (Butterfly: "Hear what I would tell you.") Pinkerton also learns that she is the daughter of a disgraced samurai 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.") Two United States Navy ships have borne the name Abraham Lincoln, in honor of the 16th President. ... Women posing as maiko (geisha apprentices), Kyoto, Japan wearing traditional furisode and okobo Geisha ) are traditional, female Japanese entertainers, whose skills include performing various Japanese arts, such as classical music and dance. ... Matchmaking is any process of introducing people for the purposes of dating and mating, usually in the context of marriage. ... A consulate (or consular office) is a form of diplomatic mission in charge of matters related to individual people and businesses, in other words issues outside inter-governmental diplomacy. ... For other uses, see Samurai (disambiguation). ... “hara-kiri” redirects here. ... A contract is a legally binding exchange of promises or agreement between parties that the law will enforce. ... Bonze can mean different things: Bonze is an archaic English term for a Chinese or Japanese Buddhist monk; see Buddhist clergy and bhikkhu. ... Faith has two general implications which can be implied either exclusively or mutually; To Trust: Believing a certain variable will act a specific way despite the potential influence of known or unknown change. ...

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. For other uses, see Honour (disambiguation). ...

Noted arias

• "Dovunque al mondo" - Benjamin Pinkerton in Act I
• "Quanto cielo! Quanto mar!" – Madama Butterfly in Act I
• "Viene la sera" – Madama Butterfly & Benjamin Pinkerton in Act I
• "Vogliatemi bene" (Love me) - Madama Butterfly in Act I
• "Un bel dì vedremo" (One fine day we shall see) - Madama Butterfly in Act II
• "Addio, fiorito asil" (Adieu, flowered refuge) - Benjamin Pinkerton in Act III
• "Tu, tu piccolo Iddio" - Madama Butterfly in Act III
• "Con onor muore" - Madama Butterfly in Act III

Vogliatemi bene (Love me) is one of the most famous arias from Puccinis Madama Butterfly, and a staple of the verismo canon. ...

Selected recordings

Mirella Freni Mirella Freni (born 27 February 1935) is a famous Italian opera soprano much admired for the youthful quality of her voice and her acting skills. ... Plácido Domingo José Plácido Domingo Embil KBE (born January 21, 1941[1]), better known as Plácido Domingo, is the world renowned operatic tenor. ... Christa Ludwig (born March 16, 1928) is a distinguished German mezzo-soprano, known both for her opera performances and her singing of Lieder. ... Herbert von Karajan (April 5, 1908 – July 16, 1989) was an Austrian conductor. ... The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (in German: Wiener Philharmoniker) is the best known orchestra in Austria and one of Europes major ensembles. ... Logo Deutsche Grammophon is a German record label. ...

Adaptations

• 1915: The opera was made into a film. It was directed by Sidney Olcott and starred Mary Pickford.
• 1922: Another film, The Toll of the Sea, based on the opera/play was released. This movie, which starred Anna May Wong in her first leading role, moved the story to China. It was the second two-color Technicolor motion picture ever released and the first film made using Technicolor Process 2.
• 1932: Cary Grant starred in another screen version.
• 1984: British Pop impresario Malcolm McLaren wrote and performed a UK hit single, 'Madame Butterfly (Un Bel Di Vedremo)', produced by Stephen Hague, based on the opera and featuring the famous aria.
• 1987: Con Onor Muore was played during a scene in the erotic thriller Fatal Attraction, in which Dan Gallagher (Michael Douglas) tells Alex Forest (Glenn Close) the childhood memory of his father taking him to see the opera. Alex later tries to re-enact the act by attempting suicide when Dan leaves.
• 1988: In David Henry Hwang's play M. Butterfly, about a story of a French diplomat and a Chinese opera singer, Butterfly is denounced as a western stereotype of a timid, submissive Asian.
• 1989: The Broadway and West End musical Miss Saigon was, in part, based on Madama Butterfly. The story was moved to Vietnam and Thailand and set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War and the Fall of Saigon.
• 1995: Frédéric Mitterrand directed a film version of the opera in Tunisia, North Africa, starring Chinese opera singer Ying Huang.
• 1995: Madame Butterfly is the central piece of Magnetic Rose, an animated short produced by Katsuhiro Otomo and directed by Koji Morimoto. The soundtrack by Yoko Kanno is largely influenced by Puccini's opera.
• 1996: The Album Pinkerton by the rock band Weezer was based loosely on the opera.
• 2001: Aria by Pjotr Sapegin, an animated short inspired by the opera, awarded as best animated short by Tickleboots best online videos 2006 and Best short film Norway 2002, won Grand Prix in Odense International Film Festival 2002 and won the audience award in Århus Film Festival 2002.
• 2004: On the 100th anniversary of Madama Butterfly, Shigeaki Saegusa composed Jr. Butterfly to a libretto by Masahiko Shimada.

Sidney Olcott (September 20, 1873 - December 16, 1949) was a Canadian producer, director, actor and writer. ... Mary Pickford (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979) was an Oscar-winning Canadian motion picture star and co-founder of United Artists in 1919. ... The Toll of the Sea was a motion picture produced by the Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation, and released by Metro Pictures in 1922. ... Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 – February 2, 1961) was the first notable Chinese American Hollywood actress. ... This article is about the British actor. ... Malcolm McLaren (born Malcolm Robert Andrew Edwards, 22 January 1946, in London) is an English impresario, musician and self-publicist who is best known as being the manager of the punk rock band Sex Pistols. ... Stephen Hague is an American music producer most active with various British acts in the 1980s. ... Fatal Attraction is a 1987 thriller about a married man who has a weekend affair with a woman who refuses to allow it to end and who becomes obsessed with him. ... For other people bearing this name, see Michael Douglas (disambiguation). ... Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is a five-time Academy Award-nominated American film and stage actress. ... // David Henry Hwang (born August 11, 1957) is a contemporary American playwright who has risen to prominence as the preeminent Asian American dramatist in the U.S. He was born in Los Angeles, California and was educated at Stanford University and the Yale School of Drama. ... M. Butterfly is a 1988 play by David Henry Hwang, which deals with themes about cultural stereotypes of East vs West (see Orientalism), and is loosely based on the real life relationship between Bernard Boursicot and Shi Pei Pu. ... The Lion King at the New Amsterdam Theatre, 2003 Broadway theatre[1] is the most prestigious form of professional theatre in the U.S., as well as the most well known to the general public and most lucrative for the performers, technicians and others involved in putting on the shows. ... West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre in London, England, or sometimes more specifically for shows staged in the large theatres of Londons Theatreland. Along with New Yorks Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre... Miss Saigon is a musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, with lyrics by Richard Maltby, Jr. ... Combatants Republic of Vietnam United States Republic of Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand The Philippines National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam Democratic Republic of Vietnam People’s Republic of China Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea Strength US 1,000,000 South Korea 300,000 Australia 48,000... Combatants Democratic Republic of Vietnam National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam Republic of Vietnam Commanders Van Tien Dung Nguyen Van Toan Strength ~130,000 ~50,000 Casualties Trivial Unknown The Fall of Saigon (in Vietnamese: Sự kiện 30 tháng 4, or April 30 Incident) was the... Frédéric Mitterrand (born August 21, 1947) is a French actor, screenwriter, television presenter, writer, producer and director. ... Memories (also Otomo Katsushiros Memories) is a 1996 anime based off three manga by artist/director Otomo Katsuhiro. ... Katsuhiro Otomo Katsuhiro Otomo (大友克洋 Ōtomo Katsuhiro) (born April 14, 1954 in Hasama, Miyagi, Japan) is a Japanese manga artist and anime director. ... Koji Morimoto (森本晃司 Morimoto Kōji, born December 26th, 1959) is an animator and one of Japans premier anime directors. ... Yoko Kanno , born March 19, 1964 in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan) is a composer, arranger and musician best known for her work on the soundtracks for many games, seminal anime films, TV series, live-action movies, and advertisements. ... Pinkerton is the second album by the American rock band Weezer, released September 24, 1996. ... For the albums, see Weezer (1994 album) and Weezer (2001 album). ... Saegusa Shigeaki (三枝成彰; family name Saegusa) (born 1941) is a Japanese opera composer. ... Masahiko Shimada , born 13 March 1961) is a Japanese poet,writer,and actor. ...

Criticisms

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Some criticism, such as that of Roger Parker, has described the opera as having racist overtones.^[2] 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. One example of this critique is the postmodernist version M. Butterfly, by David Henry Hwang. Image File history File links Circle-question. ... It has been suggested that Benign colonialism be merged into this article or section. ... Postmodernism (sometimes abbreviated pomo) is a term applied to a wide-ranging set of developments in critical theory, philosophy, architecture, art, literature, and culture, which are generally characterized as either emerging from, in reaction to, or superseding, modernism. ... M. Butterfly is a 1988 play by David Henry Hwang, which deals with themes about cultural stereotypes of East vs West (see Orientalism), and is loosely based on the real life relationship between Bernard Boursicot and Shi Pei Pu. ... // David Henry Hwang (born August 11, 1957) is a contemporary American playwright who has risen to prominence as the preeminent Asian American dramatist in the U.S. He was born in Los Angeles, California and was educated at Stanford University and the Yale School of Drama. ...

Other critiques^[3]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. Anti-American sentiment is a hostility towards or disapproval of the government, culture, history, and/or people of the United States of America. ... Combatants United States Republic of Cuba Philippine Republic Spain Commanders Nelson A. Miles William R. Shafter George Dewey Máximo Gómez Emilio Aguinaldo Patricio Montojo Pascual Cervera Arsenio Linares General Ramón Blanco Casualties 3,289 U.S. dead (432 from combat); considerably higher although undetermined Cuban and Filipino...

Sources

• Arthur Groos, "Madame Butterfly: The Story", Cambridge Opera Journal, Vol.3 No.2 (July 1991)
• Van Wyck Farkas, Remy. Madama Butterfly Record Insert. 1952.
• The Simon & Schuster Book of the Opera. 1977.
• Plot originally taken from The Opera Goer's Complete Guide by Leo Melitz, 1921 version.
• Bob Wardlas dictionary
• Starcrossed: A Biography of Madame Butterfly by Brian Burke-Gaffney (EastBridge, 2004) ISBN 1-891936-48-4

References

External links

• Madame Butterfly Turns 100; A Century Ago, Puccini's Tragic Heroine First Took the Stage". NPR.
• The libretto
• The original book by John Luther Long
• Recordings of Madama Butterfly
• Full Piano Score with notes
• The Complete Opera in MP3 Creative Commons Recording