35 Facts About Madame Butterfly

Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa.

Madama Madame Butterfly has since been heard virtually every season at the Met except for a hiatus during World War II from 1942 through 1945 due to the hostilities between the United States and Japan.

Madame Butterfly is a 15-year-old Japanese girl whom he is marrying for convenience, and he intends to leave her once he finds a proper American wife, since Japanese divorce laws are very lax.

Madame Butterfly had been so excited to marry an American that she had earlier secretly converted to Christianity.

Pinkerton and Madame Butterfly sing a love duet and prepare to spend their first night together.

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Three years later, Madame Butterfly is still waiting for Pinkerton to return, as he had left shortly after their wedding.

Madame Butterfly then reveals that she gave birth to Pinkerton's son after he had left and asks Sharpless to tell him.

But, as Pinkerton sees how Madame Butterfly has decorated the house for his return, he realizes he has made a huge mistake.

Madame Butterfly admits that he is a coward and cannot face her, leaving Suzuki, Sharpless and Kate to break the news to Butterfly.

Madame Butterfly's uncle is a priest and refuses to attend the wedding ceremony.

Madame Butterfly enters the garden, greets Pinkerton and Goro, and admires the view that overlooks Nagasaki's harbor and the sea.

Sharpless tells Pinkerton that he heard Madame Butterfly speak, when she visited the consulate, and he asks Pinkerton not to pluck off her delicate wings.

Madame Butterfly recognizes Pinkerton and points him out to her friends, and all bow down before him.

Madame Butterfly greets Pinkerton, who asks about her difficult climb up the hill.

Madame Butterfly says that, for a happy bride, the wait is even more difficult.

Madame Butterfly tells Pinkerton and Sharpless that her family is from Nagasaki and was once very wealthy.

Madame Butterfly greets her relatives, who have arrived for the wedding.

From her sleeve, Madame Butterfly brings out to show Pinkerton all of her treasures, which include only a few handkerchiefs, a mirror, a sash, and other trinkets.

Madame Butterfly tells Pinkerton that yesterday, in secret and without telling her uncle, who is a Buddhist priest, the Bonze, she went to the consulate, where she abandoned her ancestral religion and converted to Pinkerton's religion.

Madame Butterfly stands over Butterfly, shouting his curses at her, when Pinkerton intervenes to stop him.

Madame Butterfly hears and tells her that the Japanese gods are fat and lazy, and that the American God will answer quickly, if only He knows where they are living.

Madame Butterfly assures Suzuki that Pinkerton will return, because he took care to arrange for the consul to pay the rent and to fit the house with locks to keep out the mosquitoes, relatives and troubles.

At this, Madame Butterfly hears Goro laugh, and she whispers to Sharpless that Goro is a bad man.

Madame Butterfly turns triumphantly to Suzuki and asks that she serve tea.

Madame Butterfly is upset with Sharpless and instructs Suzuki to show him out.

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Suzuki and Madame Butterfly watch from the hill as the ship enters the harbor and drops anchor.

Madame Butterfly asks Suzuki why she is crying, and then she sees Sharpless and the woman in the garden.

Madame Butterfly realizes that she must give up her son, and Kate asks her forgiveness.

Madame Butterfly stands, sees Suzuki and tells her to close up the house, because it is too light and springlike.

Madame Butterfly then kneels before the statue of Buddha and prays to her ancestral gods.

Madame Butterfly rises, takes down her father's knife, kisses the blade, and reads the inscription.

Madame Butterfly tells her child not to feel sorrow for his mother's desertion but to keep a faint memory of his mother's face.

Madame Butterfly gives him a miniature American flag to wave in greeting to his father, which he does, blindfolded, throughout the following action.

Madama Madame Butterfly has been criticized by some American intellectuals for orientalism.

Today Madama Madame Butterfly is the sixth most performed opera in the world and considered a masterpiece, with Puccini's orchestration praised as limpid, fluent and refined.