Madama Butterfly

by: Giacomo Puccini

Libretto by: Luigi Illica & Giuseppe Giacosa



CAST

(in order of vocal appearance)

The Story



ACT I

In the international port of Nagasaki, in the final years of the ninteenth century, Pinkerton, an American naval lieutenant, is renting a small house as a honeymoon cottage. Goro, who initiates him into the mysterious simplicity of a Japanese dwelling, has also acted as a marriage broker, arranging a very flexible contract for the convenience of a sailor on a limited tour of duty. The bride, however, takes the marriage very seriously: this is the warning of the American consul Sharpless, an understanding but moralistic older man who now arrives as a guest at the impending wedding. Pinkerton, jovial but immature, laughs this off. After the arrival of the excited fifteen-year-old bride, Butterfly, with her girl friends, Sharpless questions her and learns that her family is noble, but was impoverished by her father's death; she has been supporting her mother by working as a geisha. She keeps as a sacred relic the knife with which her father commited hara-kiri at the emperor's command. In a quiet interlude she tells Pinkerton that out of love for him she has secretly converted to Christianity. The ceremony is soon succesfully completed, but as toasts are being drunk, one of Butterfly's uncles, a bonze (Buddhist priest) makes an angry appearance, informs her family of her conversion and causes them to depart hastily, disowning her. When the married couple are alone at last, Butterfly's misgivings about her future are submerged in a trusting love for Pinkerton, and she yields to his ardor.

ACT II

Deserted for three years, penniless and now attended only by her faithful maid Suzuki, Butterfly is still confident that Pinkerton will return and that she has entered into a binding American marriage. Thus, when the avaricious Goro brings the rich suitor Yamadori to call on her, she refuses to take the proposal seriously. Another visitor is Sharpless; he bears a letter from Pinkerton, whose return to Japan is indeed imminent but will be fraught with grief for Butterfly. Her excessive faith in her husbadn makes her overlook the words of warning and concentrate solely on the hints that he is returning. When Sharpless, "cruel, only to be kind," asks what she would so if Pinkerton never came back to her, she replies that she would return to the life of a geisha or, preferably, die. Angered by the consul's resommendation that she marry Yamadori, she shows him the child she gave birth to after Pinkerton's departure. Sharpless promises her he will inform Pinkerton of this developpment. After Sharpless leaves, Butterfly and Suzuki take Goro to task for spreading rumors that the child is illegitimate. When Goro escapes, the harbour canon is heard signaling the arrival of a ship -- Pinkerton's. Butterfly plans to await him in their home, dressed as on her bridal night. She and Suzuki decorate the house with flowers from the garden; then the two women and the child sit and wait for their lord and master.

ACT III

It is early the next morning. Butterfly, who has not slept a wink, is sent off by Suzuki, who now awakens, to get some rest. Pinkerton and Sharpless arrive to tell Suzuki that Pinkerton will never be back to stay. In fact, there is also an American woman with them -- Pinkerton's legal wife, Kate. Now that the Pinkertons know about the baby, they wish to adopt him to better his lot. Pinkerton, a moral weakling, now feels remorse for his desertion but cannot stay to face Butterfly. Suzuki has intended to break matters slowly to her mistress in private, but Butterfly enters so hastily that she finds Sharpless and kate still there, and soon knows the worst. Though giving up her child is a wrench she feels she cannot outlive, she says she must obey Pinkerton; she wants him to return in half an hour to claim the baby in person. Dismissing Suzuki, who guesses what is on her mind, Butterfly prepares to kill herself with her father's knife. Suzuki thrusts the child upon her hope of dissuading her, but this only delays the suicide. As Pinkerton returns anxiously, Butterfly dies.