Pacific Opera Victoria - Madama Butterfly Study Guide

Transcription

Introduction and Resource Guide
for Pacific Opera Victoria’s Production, April, 2015
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Welcome to Pacific Opera Victoria!
This Guide to Madama Butterfly has been created for anyone who would like to explore the opera in more detail.
The opera experience can be made more meaningful and enjoyable when you have the opportunity to learn about
the opera before attending the performance.
The guide may also be used to help teachers prepare students for their visit to the opera. It is our hope that
teachers will be able to use this material to expand students’ understanding of opera, literature, history, and the
fine arts. These materials may be copied and distributed to students.
Please visit http://www.pov.bc.ca/butterfly.html to download this guide or to find more information about
Madama Butterfly, including musical selections from POV’s Best of YouTube and artist biographies. POV Guides for
other operas are also available for download.
Please Note: The Dress Rehearsal is the last opportunity the singers will have on stage to work
with the orchestra before Opening Night. Since vocal demands are so great on opera singers,
some singers choose not to sing in full voice during the Dress Rehearsal in order to preserve
their voice for opening night.
Contents
Welcome to Pacific Opera Victoria! ___________________________________________________________ 1
Cast and Creative Team ___________________________________________________________________ 2
Introduction and Synopsis __________________________________________________________________ 3
The Music of Madama Butterfly ______________________________________________________________ 5
Audio and Video Excerpts _____________________________________________________________ 5
Butterfly’s Music: Giving a Voice to Hope __________________________________________________ 7
Puccini and Japonisme ___________________________________________________________________ 10
Japanese Phrases in the Libretto ____________________________________________________________ 11
Tracing the Butterfly Effect: Sources for Madama Butterfly ________________________________________ 12
From Verismo to Turandot – A Puccini Primer__________________________________________________ 16
Giacomo Puccini ________________________________________________________________________ 17
Resources and Links _____________________________________________________________________ 24
Student Activities ________________________________________________________________________ 28
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Pacific Opera Victoria Study Guide for Madama Butterfly 2015
1
Madama Butterfly
Music by Giacomo Puccini
Libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacoso
based on David Belasco’s play Madame Butterfly
First Performance February 17, 1904, at La Scala, Milan
Première of the first Revision, May 28, 1904, Brescia
Performances April 9, 11, 15, 17, 2015, at 8 pm
Matinée April 19 at 2:30 pm
Royal Theatre, Victoria, BC
In Italian with English surtitles
Cast and Creative Team
Cast in order of Vocal Appearance
Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton, US Naval Lieutenant ................. Adam Luther
Goro, a marriage broker ......................................................... James McLennan
Suzuki, maid to Cio-Cio-San ..................................................... Arminè Kassabian
Sharpless, United States consul at Nagasaki ........................... Bruce Kelly
Cio-Cio-San (Butterfly) ............................................................ Jee Hye Han
The Imperial Commissioner .................................................... Andrew Erasmus
The Bonze, a Buddhist Monk, Cio-Cio-San’s Uncle ................. Jeremy Bowes
Prince Yamadori, Cio-Cio-San’s suitor ..................................... Tyler Fitzgerald
Trouble (Sorrow), Cio-Cio-San’s child ...................................... Nate Ingram
Kate Pinkerton ......................................................................... Jayne Hammond
Chorus of Cio-Cio-San’s relations, friends, servants
Artistic Director ....................................................................... Timothy Vernon
Conductor and Chorus Master ................................................ Giuseppe Pietraroia
Director .................................................................................... Diana Leblanc
Production Designer ................................................................ Patrick Clark
Lighting Designer ..................................................................... Alan Brodie
Répétiteur ................................................................................ Csinszka Rédai
Director in Residence ............................................................... Sarah Jane Pelzer
Designer in Residence .............................................................. Marshall McMahen
Stage Manager ......................................................................... Sara Robb
Assistant Stage Managers ........................................................ Emma Hammond, Steve Barker
With the Victoria Symphony and the Pacific Opera Chorus
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2
Introduction
A young geisha renounces her family to marry an American man. When he
leaves to go back to his own country, she waits with their child for his
return.
Though she is the gentlest of heroines, Butterfly has formidable inner
strength. Guided by honour and fidelity, sustained by hope, she refuses for
the longest time to believe she has been abandoned.
Puccini himself loved Butterfly above all his heroines – her for whom I
wrote music in the night. And what music! The score pours out lush
melodies, infused with delicate Japanese harmonies – it is as ravishing as
anything in opera!
Eminent Canadian theatre artist Diana Leblanc directs this gorgeous new
production of Madama Butterfly, designed by Patrick Clark, and featuring
Korean soprano Jee Hye Han in her North American debut.
Synopsis
Act 1
Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton, an American naval officer posted in Nagasaki, arranges with the marriage
broker Goro to lease a Japanese house along with a pretty young Japanese wife. Both deals may be cancelled
on a month’s notice.
As he shows off the house to the American consul, Sharpless, Pinkerton praises the Yankee penchant for
roaming the world in search of pleasure, profit, and beautiful women. Although he is entranced by his lovely
Japanese bride, Pinkerton is careless of her feelings:
like a butterfly she flutters and settles with such quiet grace
that a madness seizes me to pursue her,
even though I might damage her wings.
When Sharpless warns him that the girl may not take such a casual view of the arrangement, Pinkerton
brushes off his concern, and drinks to the day when he has a proper wedding to a proper American wife.
Cio-Cio-San, Pinkerton’s bride-to-be, is heard declaring herself the happiest girl in Japan as she and her
relations arrive for the wedding. She soon reveals that she is 15 years old and has had to earn her living as a
geisha after her father committed suicide by order of the Mikado. She also tells Pinkerton that she has
secretly visited the Christian mission in order to adopt his religion.
After the brief marriage ceremony, Cio-Cio-San’s uncle, the Bonze, interrupts the festivities and sternly
denounces her for renouncing her religion. Her family join in condemning and shunning the devastated girl.
Pinkerton orders them to leave, and as night falls, he comforts his young bride.
As he exclaims how perfectly the name Butterfly suits her, she says she has heard that that overseas, a man
will catch a butterfly and pin its wings to a table. Pinkerton explains that this is to prevent it from flying away:
I've caught you ... you are mine. She responds, Yes, for life, and they revel in the glorious, starry night above
them.
Intermission
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3
Act 2
Three years have gone by since Pinkerton’s return to
the United States. Butterfly and her servant Suzuki
are nearly out of money, and Suzuki doubts that
Pinkerton will ever come back. Butterfly, however,
believes fervently that he will keep his promise and
that one fine day she will see a wisp of smoke, and his
ship will enter the harbor: This will happen, I promise
you ... with unalterable faith I shall wait for him.
Goro arrives with Sharpless, who has brought a letter
from Pinkerton. Butterfly asks Sharpless when the
robins make their nests in America, for Pinkerton had
promised to return to her in that happy season when
the robin builds his nest. Three such seasons have
passed in Japan. Sharpless can only answer that he
hasn’t studied ornithology.
Delcina Stevenson is Butterfly, and Barbara Prowse is
Suzuki in Pacific Opera Victoria’s 1981 production of
Madama Butterfly.
They are interrupted by the arrival of Prince Yamadori, the latest in a succession of suitors that Goro has
been presenting to Butterfly. Butterfly flirts politely with Yamadori even as she refuses him. Goro tries to
persuade her to marry Yamadori, on the grounds that being abandoned is equal to being divorced. That may
be the law in Japan, she retorts, but not in the United States. The three men are dismayed by her blind
optimism. They know that Pinkerton's ship is on its way and that Pinkerton does not wish to see Butterfly.
Yamadori reluctantly takes his leave.
As Sharpless begins to read the letter from Pinkerton, Butterfly keeps interrupting him, becoming more and
more excited by the thought that her husband is coming back. Sharpless cannot bear to finish reading the
letter, and finally asks her, What would you do, Madam Butterfly, if he were never to return? Butterfly tells
him she would have but two choices – to go back to the life of a geisha or to die.
When Sharpless urges her to accept Prince Yamadori’s offer of marriage, Butterfly is furious and hurt. She
brings her son out and tells Sharpless he is called Trouble, but will be renamed Joy on his father’s return.
Sharpless leaves, promising to tell Pinkerton about the child.
Pinkerton’s ship, the Abraham Lincoln, arrives in the harbour, and Butterfly in great joy decorates the house
with every last flower from the garden. She settles down with Suzuki and the child to wait for him. Their
wordless vigil lasts the entire night. Suzuki and the baby fall asleep as the offstage chorus hums a tone-poem
that evokes the beauty of the night and the hope in Butterfly's heart as she waits.
Act 3
At sunrise, Suzuki insists that Butterfly get some sleep, and promises to wake her when Pinkerton arrives.
Shortly after, Pinkerton and Sharpless appear with Pinkerton’s American wife, Kate. The men desperately try
to persuade Suzuki to break the news to Butterfly that Pinkerton and Kate want to take the child. Overcome
with guilt, Pinkerton flees the scene.
Butterfly enters, looking for Pinkerton. When she sees Kate, she quickly grasps the situation and tells Kate
that she will give up her son if Pinkerton comes back for him. Kate and Sharpless leave to find Pinkerton.
Butterfly sends Suzuki out of the room and takes out the dagger with which her father had committed
suicide, saying, One shall die with honour who no longer can live with honour. As Butterfly points the knife at
her throat, Suzuki pushes the child into the room. Butterfly says goodbye to the child, gently blindfolds him,
and goes behind a screen. She stabs herself just as Pinkerton rushes in, anxiously calling her name.
Maureen Woodall
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4
The Music of Madama Butterfly
Puccini called Madama Butterfly "the most heartfelt and evocative opera I have ever conceived.” Discover
the beauty of this opera through the Youtube links below.
These links can also be accessed at http://www.pov.bc.ca/butterfly-music.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06QUSg23Ks4
Nick Reveles: San Diego OperaTalk!
Join Nick Reveles of San Diego OperaTalk! for a discussion of Madama Butterfly, including how Puccini was inspired
to create the opera, its disastrous world première, discussions of Japanese society and the music of the opera,
along with an overview of recordings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqTVlN4BJsE
Act 1. Dovunque al mondo ... Amore o grillo (Throughout the world ... Love or fancy)
With the help of the marriage broker Goro, Lieutenant B.F. Pinkerton has leased a Japanese house and a
Japanese wife. The agreement is for 999 years – cancellable on a month's notice.
Opening to the strains of The Star-Spangled Banner, this thrilling aria tells us nearly all we need to know about
Pinkerton. He loves the thought of being a Yankee roaming the world in search of pleasure, profit, and beautiful
women. He is entranced by his lovely Japanese bride, but ...
Like a butterfly she comes to rest with hushed grace,
and I'm gripped with the desire to chase after her
even if I break her wings.
When Sharpless, the American consul, warns him that the girl may actually be in love with him, Pinkerton brushes
off his concern, and drinks to the day I have a proper wedding to a proper American wife.
Although this aria shows Pinkerton at his insensitive best, the music is rapturous, and one can begin to
understand how easily Cio-Cio-San could have fallen for him.
In this 1974 film by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, Placido Domingo is Pinkerton, Robert Kerns is Sharpless, and Michel
Sénéchal is Goro. Herbert von Karajan conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Vienna State Opera. With
English surtitles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvexSfANgaA
Act 1. Love Duet, first part. Viene la sera ... Bimba dagli occhi pieni di malia (Night is falling ... Little one
with your bewitching eyes)
Here is the beginning of the great love duet between Cio-Cio-San and Pinkerton. The marriage ceremony has
taken place, but Cio-Cio-San's entire family has disowned her because she has rejected her ancestral religion and
become a Christian. Pinkerton has ordered them to leave, and now he comforts his young bride.
From Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's 1974 film of the opera. Mirella Freni is Butterfly, and Placido Domingo is Pinkerton.
Herbert von Karajan conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Vienna State Opera. With English surtitles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCk9BaIJVIk
Act 1. Love Duet, second part. Vogliatemi bene (Love me with a little love)
Butterfly pleads with Pinkerton to "Love me, please."
We are a people used to small, modest, quiet things,
to a tenderness gently caressing, yet vast as the sky and as the waves of the sea.
She tells him she has heard that overseas, a man will catch a butterfly and pin its wings to a table. Pinkerton
explains that this is so it will not fly away: I've caught you ... you are mine. She responds, Yes, for life, and they revel
in the glorious, starry night above them.
Victoria de los Angeles is Butterfly and Giuseppe di Stefano is Pinkerton in this acclaimed 1954 recording, with the
Rome Opera Orchestra conducted by Gianandrea Gavazzeni.
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5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4dOpvVMfqg
Act 2, Part 1. Un bel dì, vedremo (One fine day we'll see)
When the second act begins, Pinkerton has been gone for three years. Cio-Cio-San has been living with her maid
Suzuki and the child that she bore after Pinkerton's return to the United States. The two women are nearly out of
money, and Suzuki doubts that Pinkerton will ever come back. Cio-Cio-San, however, believes fervently that
Pinkerton will keep his promise and return to her and their child.
In the most famous aria in the opera, she tells Suzuki what will surely happen ...
Un bel dì, vedremo levarsi un fil di fumo sull'estremo confin del mare.
One fine day we'll see a wisp of smoke arising over the extreme verge of the sea's horizon...
Then the white ship will enter the harbour ... I shan't go down to meet him.
No, I shall stand there on the brow of the hill and wait
And from the midst of the city crowd a man – a tiny speck – will make his way up the hill.
He'll call, "Butterfly!" from the distance.
Not answering, I'll remain hidden, partly to tease,
and partly so as not to die at the first meeting ...
And this will happen, I promise you ... with unalterable faith I shall wait for him.
Maria Callas sings Un bel di, vedremo in a 1955 studio recording with Herbert von Karajan conducting the Chorus &
Orchestra of La Scala Opera House.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18TjhA7TC38#t=50
Un bel di, vedremo: Historic Recording from 1912
The world première of Madama Butterfly took place at La Scala, Milan, on February 17, 1904. It was a disaster, in
part because of a hostile, rowdy audience, possibly orchestrated by a rival publishing house.
Puccini immediately made several revisions to the opera, including splitting the long first act into two, and giving
Pinkerton a remorseful aria near the end of the opera. Three months later, on May 28, 1904, he premiered a
revised version in Brescia. This time the opera was a hit, and it has since established itself as one of the most
popular operas ever.
Rosina Storchio performed Cio-Cio-San at the La Scala première. In the Brescia première, it was Ukrainian soprano
Salomea Krusceniski (Solomiya Krushelnytska) who performed the role of Cio-Cio-San. Here is Salomea Krusceniski
singing Un bel di, vedremo in a 1912 recording.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWAaK4DyAt8
Act 2. Mio marito m'ha promesso My husband made me a promise
One day, Goro and Sharpless arrive to visit Butterfly. Sharpless has brought a letter from Pinkerton to read to her.
But they are interrupted by the arrival of Prince Yamadori, the latest in a succession of suitors that Goro has been
presenting to Cio-CIo-San.
Prince Yamadori arrives with great pomp amid the strains of a martial tune that those familiar with Gilbert and
Sullivan's 1885 musical, The Mikado, will recognize. “Miya sama” in The Mikado was originally a Japanese army war
song called “Miyasan” (My Prince). It is one of several Japanese melodies that Puccini incorporated into the opera.
Although Madama Butterfly is at heart a romantic tragedy, this scene is full of charm and humour as Cio-Cio-San
flirts politely with Yamadori even while refusing him.
Goro tries to persuade Butterfly to marry Yamadori, on the grounds that being abandoned is equal to being
divorced. That may be the law in Japan, she tells him, but not in the United States. She quotes a brief phrase from
Kimigayo (which is as close to a National Anthem as Japan had at the time), followed by a few notes from The StarSpangled Banner, making it clear which country she feels is now her own.
The three men are dismayed by her blind optimism. They know that Pinkerton's ship is on its way and that
Pinkerton does not wish to see Butterfly. Yamadori takes his leave.
From Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's 1974 film of the opera. Mirella Freni is Butterfly, with Robert Kerns as Sharpless,
Michel Sénéchal as Goro, Giorgio Stendoro as Yamadori, and Christa Ludwig as Suzuki. Herbert von Karajan
conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Vienna State Opera. With English surtitles.
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6
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpJO1PVGA7c
End of Act 2. Coro a bocca chiusa (Humming-Chorus)
Knowing the letter he carries announces that Pinkerton has an American wife, Sharpless has asked Butterfly what
she would do if Pinkerton never returned. By reply she has shown Sharpless the child and told him, I could do one
of two things: go back to entertaining people with my songs; or better, die. Sharpless has left, unable to tell her the
truth.
Now Butterfly has spied Pinkerton's ship in the harbour and in great joy has readied the house for his arrival. She
settles down with Suzuki and the child to wait for him.
Their wordless vigil lasts the entire night. Suzuki and the baby fall asleep as the offstage chorus hums a beautiful,
gentle tune, the famous Humming Chorus, a tone-poem that evokes the beauty of the night and the hope in
Butterfly's heart as she waits.
In the play by David Belasco on which Puccini based the opera, this vigil scene was even more drawn out – 14
minutes with no spoken words, in which dusk, starlight, and dawn were presented in a series of lighting effects
that demonstrated Belasco's genius in taking advantage of the nascent art of electric theatrical lighting.
The performers and musicians are not identified in the video.
Maureen Woodall
Butterfly’s Music: Giving a Voice to Hope
Madama Butterfly is one of opera’s most accessible works, built on beautiful, evocative melodies and a heartfelt,
compelling story, all amidst a backdrop of social conflict that remains relevant a century after its premiere.
Surprisingly, the work has been reviled by critics and summarily dismissed by musicologists. Even the composer’s
friend Giulio Ricordi considered the piece a “facile tear-jerker” unworthy of Puccini’s genius.
In recent years, however, the work’s profound popularity has inspired writers and musicians to engage in new
critical review, and Puccini’s self-professed favourite opera appears to have gained a new artistic respect to match
its sentimental appeal. The often underestimated composer is being recognized as an artful interpreter of text, an
inspired orchestrator, and of course, a master melodist, one who can weave these skills to create character and
drama that can speak directly to the heart of his listener.
th
As you explore Madama Butterfly – for the first or 20 time – consider these musical aspects of the work that
underlie the truly sumptuous and expansively emotional score.
Melodic Cells
Melody in Madama Butterfly is paramount; character is defined by consistent use of particular intervallic patterns
– short, melodic cells, if you like – that are repeated, embellished, and developed to create unity of character
throughout the work.
For example, listen for the first two bars of the music of Butterfly’s entrance; these four notes form the basis for
the aria that announces the entrance of the innocent heroine.
Example #1 – Butterfly’s Entrance
Five upwardly modulating repetitions of this theme, taken by solo violin, woodwinds, solo voice and ultimately full
orchestra evolve into a full statement of the aria’s melody, an aural impression of a flower coming into blossom,
petal by petal. Later in the act, this same melody reappears several times, notably as the final climax of Butterfly
and Pinkerton’s Love Duet (Dolce notte! Quante Stelle! – Sweet Night! So many Stars!), while the opera’s most
popular aria, (Un bel di vedremo) evolves from this same two measure melodic cell.
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7
For all the impressionist sounds of Butterfly’s music, Pinkerton’s music takes a decidedly more forthright tone. His
first aria is built on the opening notes of The Star Spangled Banner, a perfect major triad, evoking not only the
familiar patriotic sounds of the American National Anthem, but also a simplicity and clarity far removed from the
impressionist chromatic planing of Butterfly’s entrance music.
It is most certainly no coincidence that Pinkerton’s second aria (Amore o grillo, dir non saprei – I cannot say
whether it is love or caprice), where he tells the consul Sharpless of the superficial quality of his feelings for
Butterfly, begins with this same major triad, and his solo music shares the same directness of melodic design
throughout.
Repetition
Sustained repetition of musical ideas can create cathartic moments; emotion is intensified as the listener hears the
relentless repetition as a tragic scene unfolds. This technique is not specific to any particular time period; it can be
heard in the final laments of Monteverdi and Purcell and in the minimal music of Phillip Glass. Puccini is a master
of this technique and employed it throughout his canon; it can be seen in the Embarkation Scene in Manon
Lescaut, the execution of Cavaradossi in Tosca, and the Calaf’s obsessive infatuation with Turandot at the end of
Act I.
In Act II of Madama Butterfly, repetition creates wrenching despair as we watch the American consul reveal to
Butterfly the contents of the letter from Pinkerton: he will not be returning. At the start of the scene, the
following ostinato (repetitive theme) is introduced:
Example #2 – Letter Duet from Act II
The consistent repetition of this theme, developed with a series of countermelodies, can be seen to represent
Butterfly’s single-minded belief and blinding hope that he will return. The audience, of course, knows that this will
not happen, but as Puccini spins out this musical scene, minute after minute, the emotional power of her false
hope becomes unbearable to watch.
These same themes become the basis for the “Humming Chorus”, the quiet music that accompanies the start of
Butterfly, Suzuki and the child Trouble’s vigil upon hearing the sound of Pinkerton’s ship in the harbour. By adding
the sound of the human voice to the offstage, it is as if we ourselves have joined the story as witness to the
heroine’s soon to be broken dreams.
Exotic Elements
The “exotic” sounds incorporated into the score are more readily heard. In preparation to compose Butterfly,
Puccini studied Japanese folk music and included a wide range of melodies learned through this study. While still
very much in the Italian tradition, this Japanese style and at times the melodies themselves are incorporated
throughout the score. The clipped staccato narrative of the marriage broker Goro creates a studied Japanese
character, pentatonic scales evoke the sounds of folk tunes at Butterfly’s wedding, repeated crashes of the gong
herald the Bonze’s condemnation of Butterfly’s marriage outside the faith, and Suzuki’s Act II prayer to the gods is
based on an Eastern chant.
Takai-Yama, traditional Japanese melody, heard in Act II Scene I, Suzuki’s Prayer
A full listing of the Japanese melodies
http://daisyfield.com/music/jpm/Puccini.htm .
found
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Butterfly
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8
Orchestration
While melody provides the framework for consistent character development, it is the orchestration that creates
the intensity of emotion that makes this work so compelling.
The great aria Un bel di vedremo highlights Puccini’s mastery in this arena. Solo violin and muted strings mirror the
opening vocal phrases where Butterfly begins to paint the picture of her lover’s return. Low strings and winds take
the lead when the ship appears; horns take the melody as she hears the guns saluting his arrival. As she timidly
decides to wait for him at the top of the hill rather than running to the harbour, the orchestration thins out, and
her melody is no longer doubled.
The next section, where Butterfly sees the lone figure of Pinkerton emerge from the crowd, is lightly underscored
with strings, this time anticipating the beat and creating dramatic tension as she yearns for his embrace. The
orchestra lightens as she decides again not to answer his cries, “partly for fun and partly as not to die at their
meeting”. On the word “morire”, the melody returns with full strings, horn and trumpet – a momentary outburst
that quiets as she hears Pinkerton call out his pet names for her. She soon breaks the story to tell Suzuki “all this
will happen, I promise you. Keep your fears to yourself, I shall await him with unspeakable faith”.
With this return to reality, Puccini unleashes the full power of the orchestra, a wellspring of sound that evokes
Butterfly’s personal strength and undying belief. The quiet fifteen-year-old geisha is called upon to dominate this
massive orchestral sound with a vocal, dramatic and spiritual intensity that is the power of this work.
These are but a few of the examples that illustrate the creative brilliance of Puccini’s music. Every note in the
score, vocal and instrumental, is carefully chosen to create an emotional impact that is instantly understood,
whether it is being heard for the first or hundredth time by a musical novice or seasoned professional. As you
listen to this beloved work, enjoy Puccini’s compositional mastery: its can fill your heart, captivate your mind, and
move your soul.
David Shefsiek, 2008
Above: entrance of Butterfly and her friends from Pacific Opera Victoria’s 2008 production of Madama Butterfly.
Emily Cooper Photography
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9
Puccini and Japonisme
Puccini called Madama Butterfly a “tragedia giapponese”: a Japanese tragedy. But it’s an Italian opera written by
three men who had never visited Japan. How Japanese could it really be? And why write an opera set in Japan in
the first place?
The answer to the last question is the French word Japonisme—to translate it literally as Japanism isn’t sufficient.
Better to call it Japanamania. Soon after Japan ended its 200-year isolation from the West in 1854, the European
art world discovered Japan. Western artists admired and imitated the incredible energy and authenticity of the
images, the flat, colored backgrounds, the cutting off of figures at the edge of a frame, the asymmetry and
diagonal constructions, and the juxtaposition of wildly-colored fabrics in many-layered kimono.
But what brought “the Orient” to the general public were the world’s fairs held in Paris during the 19th century.
National pavilions displayed the art and culture of Asia and the Pacific, including plays, poetry, and musical
performances. The Expositions of 1867 and 1889 were especially important to composers, who heard Asian music
for the first time and were exposed to a completely new and stimulating sound world. The five-note scale of Japan
(easily played by using just the black keys on the piano), the complex rhythms of Javanese music, and a whole new
world of percussion instruments found their way into piano pieces, orchestral works, and operas. Gilbert and
Sullivan’s Mikado was written to satirize England’s Japanamania, spurred by the enormously popular Japanese
village on view in London in 1885.
There were other “Japanese” operas, all known to Puccini, before Madama Butterfly, too: La princess jaune by
Saint-Saëns (1872), Mascagni’s Iris (1898) on a libretto by Luigi Illica, Puccini’s collaborator; and Messager’s
Madame Chrysanthème (1893), one of the original sources of the Butterfly story. So surrounded by Japanamania
on every side, the composer was primed for the encounter with his favorite character, Madama Butterfly.
“There is no comparison between my love for Mimì, Musetta, Manon, and Tosca and that love which I
have in my heart for her for whom I wrote music in the night.” –Giacomo Puccini
It was while he was in London to supervise Tosca in 1900 that Puccini fell in love with the heroine of David
Belasco’s melodrama Madame Butterfly. Afire with enthusiasm, he directed Giulio Ricordi to get the rights to
Belasco’s play and John Luther Long’s story on which the play was based. While Puccini was engaged in an intense
battle over the plot with his librettists Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, he was also steeping himself in the music
and culture of Japan.
In 1902 Puccini met in Milan with Sadayakko, the celebrated actress. He wanted to hear “the high twitter” of a
Japanese woman’s voice, and probably also saw her play, The Geisha and the Knight, which has a cherry blossom
scene much like the flower scene in his opera. Mrs. Oyama, wife of the Japanese ambassador to Italy, was also
invaluable in singing “native” songs to Puccini who wrote them down and asked many questions. She procured
sheet music from Japan and went through the libretto with the composer, pointing out errors in the names of
characters, gods, and household objects. One mistake she noted was that “Yamadori” is a woman’s name. It
remains uncorrected!
Puccini’s hunger for authenticity led him to weave versions of 11 Japanese songs throughout the score. Besides
infusing the music with local color, Puccini used them for their dramatic effect. The original words to the songs
didn’t seem to matter. For example, one of the most searing moments of the score is Butterfly’s aria “Che tua
madre,” in which she describes life on the streets. Here Puccini excerpts a traditional rice-planting song. Scholars
can’t agree on how many songs Puccini quoted—there may be more than the 11 substantiated. It seems that
Puccini so immersed himself in this music that he was able to synthesize new Japanese-sounding tunes. Even
Japanese scholars can’t always tell what’s authentic and what’s invented.
Puccini’s delicious orchestration adds another Japanese flavor for us Westerners. He used traditional Western
orchestral instruments in combinations that mimic the sounds he heard from Japanese musicians and enlarged the
usual percussion section to include tam-tams (gongs) of various sizes, Japanese bells, tubular chimes, and a
keyboard glockenspiel.
With all these efforts to honor and include Japanese culture, did Puccini succeed in writing a Japanese tragedy?
Not really. It remains a Western artwork based on racial stereotypes and colonialist attitudes. But Puccini dearly
loved his suffering beauty. Out of his dream of Japan, he created an indelible work that transcends its cruelty.
—Beth “Opera Lady” Parker
Pittsburgh Opera © 2007
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10
Japanese Phrases in the Libretto
Puccini and his librettists used (and mis-used) many Japanese words in the libretto
Bonze
Archaic English word for a Japanese Buddhist monk (Japanese bonso).
Cio-Cio-San
Pronounced Cho-Cho-San in English; “san” is an honorific title
Kami
“Higher ones” in the Shinto religion. Suzuki (a Buddhist!) prays to Izanagi,
Izanami, Sarudahiko, and Tenshokodaijin (names are garbled in the libretto); and
quotes “Ocunama,” an invention of the librettists.
Nagasaki
The center of Western influence until well in the 20th century. America dropped
the plutonium bomb on Nagasaki in 1945. Its leading tourist site today is the
Glover House. Tom Glover, known in Japan as Guraba Tomisaburo, was the son
of a Japanese woman and the Scottish businessman who built the house. Many
believe he is the real model for Butterfly’s son Trouble. Having been shunned by
his countrymen for years because of his mixed ancestry, Tomisaburo committed
suicide after the atomic bomb shattered his city.
Nakodo
Marriage broker (Goro).
Obi
Long sash that binds a kimono.
Ottoke
Hotoké are deceased ancestors represented by small wooden figures.
Samurai
Members of the feudal military class. They rarely had to fight after 1650, so
devoted themselves to the study of Confucianism, the arts, or government.
Seppuku
Ceremonial suicide in the samurai class, also known as hara-kiri. Women
committed jigai by piercing their necks.
Shoshi
Shoji are sliding rice-paper doors of a Japanese home.
At left: Michèle Losier as Suzuki and Sally Dibble
as Cio-Cio-San in Pacific Opera Victoria’s 2008
production of Madama Butterfly.
Emily Cooper Photography
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11
Tracing the Butterfly Effect: Sources and Creators
It is said that the flutter of a butterfly’s wings can ultimately cause a typhoon on the other side of the world. You
can’t trace the typhoon back to the butterfly – you can never be sure when or where the chain of consequences
actually started … but it’s intriguing to speculate.
The opera Madama Butterfly is the result of coincidence, serendipity, and a story retold many times.
The story itself is simple: a man looking for a good time, a girl looking for a life – careless love, overlaid with the
culture clash between Japan and the United States. In this particular iteration, a young naval officer lands in
Nagasaki and rents a house and a temporary wife. After an idyllic affair, he goes back to what he considers the real
world. Butterfly, all too faithful, waits with his child. Eventually he reappears with an American wife to claim the
child, and Butterfly kills herself.
The opera’s origins lie not just in Puccini’s Italy – it was composed in Torre del Lago, premièred in Milan, and
resurrected in Brescia – but in Nagasaki, Philadelphia, New York, London – even here in Victoria.
Let’s explore just a few strands in this concatenation of real life, storytelling, and chance. What might have
happened …
1.
if a French naval officer hadn’t landed in 1885 Nagasaki and adopted the custom of renting a wife for the
five weeks his ship was in dry dock?
2.
if an American missionary hadn’t passed on to her brother a bit of gossip she had heard while based in
Nagasaki?
3.
if Giacomo Puccini hadn’t gone to the theatre one night while he was in London preparing for the Covent
Garden premiere of Tosca?
4.
if the creator of the play Puccini saw in London hadn’t caught the theatre bug growing up right here in
Victoria?
1. In the summer of 1885, Louis-Marie-Julien Viaud, a French naval officer, arrived in
Nagasaki and entered into a marriage – “valid for as long as the two parties agree” –
with a seventeen year old girl named O-Kane-san.
Out of his experience came the 1887 novel, Madame Chrysanthème, one of some 40
semi-autobiographical novels that Viaud wrote under the pseudonym Pierre Loti.
His novels recounted his travels and love affairs in such exotic locales as Tahiti, Senegal,
Istanbul, the Holy Land, India, and, of course, Japan. With their local colour, exoticism,
and romance, these stories were lapped up by an appreciative public – and by a couple
of opera composers: Madame Chrysanthème became an opera by André Messager,
while another of Viaud’s books, Le Mariage de Loti, helped inspire Delibes’ opera
Lakmé.
The photo at left, taken in Nagasaki in 1885, shows Pierre Loti on the right, his friend, a
Breton sailor named Pierre le Cor at left, and O-Kane-san, seated.
2. Not long after, an American couple, Irvin and Jennie Correll, went to Nagasaki as
missionaries of the American Methodist Mission. On returning to Philadelphia in 1897,
Jennie told her brother, an American lawyer named John Luther Long, about a tea-house
girl named Cho-San who had been abandoned by her lover and survived a suicide attempt.
Long transformed this account into a short story, told essentially from the point of view of
the girl, Cho-Cho-San, and introducing most of the characters we find in the opera. In his
story, Cho-Cho-San’s maid binds up her wound, and when Mrs. Pinkerton comes to collect
the baby, mother and child have vanished.
At right is a portrait of John Luther Long, who called himself “a sentimentalist, and a
feminist and proud of it”.
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12
There has been much speculation on the models for the real Cho-Cho-San and Pinkerton. One theory is that
while she was in Nagasaki with her missionary husband, Jennie Correll may have met the grown son of the real
Cho-Cho-San.
Butterfly's son, known in the opera as Trouble or Sorrow, is thought to have grown up in Nagasaki under the name
Thomas Albert Glover (aka Kuraba Tomisaburo / Tom Glover). Cho-Cho-San may have been a woman named Kaga
Maki, who in 1870 had a child by a Scotsman in Nagasaki. The father may have been a Scottish merchant, Thomas
Blake Glover, or one of his two brothers. Kaga Maki eventually married a Japanese man and died in Nagasaki in
1905.
The child, Tomisaburo, was adopted by Thomas Blake Glover and his wife Tsura. Thomas Blake Glover, nicknamed
the Scottish Samurai, was an entrepreneur, industrialist and arms dealer, who contributed greatly to the growth of
modern Japan.
Tomisaburo studied biology at the University of Pennsylvania in 1890, then returned to Nagasaki where he worked
for a trading firm and became director of the Nagasaki Steamship Fishery Company. He was responsible for
creating a renowned atlas of fish species in Southern and Western Japan, commonly referred to as the “Glover Fish
Atlas,” which contained beautiful, accurate watercolors of the hundreds of species found near his home.
As both Tomisaburo and his wife were of mixed race, the
military authorities harassed them as spies during World
War II – reminiscent of the treatment of Americans of
Japanese descent in North America at the same time. The
sad end to this story is that in August 1945, after the
atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Tomisaburo committed
suicide.
The photo at right shows Tomisaburo’s family around
1900. In the back row are from left to right: Tomisaburo;
his uncle, Alfred; and Thomas Blake Glover. Seated, left to
right: Tomisaburo’s aunt, Martha; his sister, Hana; and his
wife Waka.
3. In 1900, John Luther Long’s story was adapted into a one-act play by David Belasco, who changed the ending
by having Cho-Cho-San successfully kill herself. Belasco produced, directed, and designed a sensationally successful
production in New York, then toured the play to London, where it opened at the Duke of York’s Theatre and, by a
happy fluke, was seen by Puccini. Although he couldn’t speak English, Puccini was blown away by the theatricality
and operatic potential of this play.
In William Winter’s The Life of David Belasco, the playwright is quoted as saying,
Puccini ... came behind the scenes to embrace me enthusiastically and to beg me to let him use ‘Madame
Butterfly’ as an opera libretto. I agreed at once and told him he could do anything he liked with the play and
make any sort of contract he liked because it is not possible to discuss business arrangements with an
impulsive Italian who has tears in his eyes and both his arms round your neck! I never believed he did see
‘Madame Butterfly’ that first night; he only heard the music he was going to write.
A major reason for the success of the play was Belasco’s technical wizardry, demonstrated most daringly in the
vigil scene in which Butterfly waits all night for Pinkerton to arrive. Belasco devised magical electrical lighting
effects for this 14-minute scene during which not a word was spoken. The audience watched in awe as twilight
faded, the stars came out, dawn broke, and birds began to sing.
Belasco himself was enormously proud of this scene:
I have been asked many times what I consider my most successful achievement in stirring imagination
through the agencies of scenery. I invariably reply that the scene of the passing of an entire night in
"Madame Butterfly" has been my most successful effort in appealing to the imaginations of those who have
sat before my stage... to keep an audience's imagination stirred... it was necessary to have a scene of
changing beauty... My experiment was hazardous, but it succeeded, and its success was due entirely to its
imaginative appeal – The secret of its fascination lay in my use of lights.
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13
So who was David Belasco? Many people today recognize his name only because Puccini
composed two operas based on his plays: Madama Butterfly and The Girl of the Golden
West.
In addition to being a playwright and a brilliant pioneer in the nascent art of lighting
design, Belasco was an American theatre legend – actor, director, producer, impresario,
theatre owner (His ghost is said to haunt the Belasco Theatre that he built in New York in
1907. The interior of the theatre is shown below, at right).
Belasco specialized in staging sensational, often sentimental melodramas with lavish,
meticulously detailed naturalism. A flock of real sheep were part of his 1879 staging of
Salmi Morse’s Passion Play. He once reproduced a restaurant kitchen, whence actual
cooking smells wafted into the audience; he bought the contents of a cheap
boardinghouse – furniture, carpet, broken gas fixtures, even the faded wallpaper – in
order to present it accurately on stage.
Belasco’s realistic staging even found its way into a humorous reference in The
Great Gatsby. A party guest discovers Gatsby’s library and is amazed to find the
books are real:
“Absolutely real – have pages and everything. I thought they'd be a nice
durable cardboard… Here! Lemme show you…”
Taking our skepticism for granted, he rushed to the bookcases and
returned with Volume One of the "Stoddard Lectures."
"See!" he cried triumphantly. "It's a bona-fide piece of printed matter. It
fooled me. This fella's a regular Belasco. It's a triumph. What
thoroughness! What realism! Knew when to stop, too--didn't cut the
pages."
Gatsby’s books function exactly like Belasco’s stage props: they’re the real
thing, but they’re not actually intended to be read. In fact, the term
"Belascoism" was coined to describe this romanticized and very popular brand of naturalism.
A flamboyant, larger-than-life showman, Belasco, although Jewish, had a penchant for dressing in black and
wearing a clerical collar – hence his nickname, the Bishop of Broadway. But his lifestyle was anything but priestly.
A notorious spinner of tales and seducer of chorus girls, he is said to have invented (or at least perfected) the
casting couch and to have invited a succession of aspiring starlets up to his lavish penthouse above the Belasco
Theatre to show off his landscapes (conveniently hung on sliding tracks so they could be drawn aside to reveal
more erotic artworks). A room of the penthouse was devoted to Belasco’s collection of Napoleonic memorabilia
(the five-foot-three control freak identified with the French Emperor).
Belasco was a huge name in American theatre. He is said to have
given Barbara Stanwyck her stage name (she started out as a
chorus girl named Ruby Stevens) and he gave Mary Pickford her big
break.
At left Mary Pickford is seen with David Belasco playing himself in
the 1914 silent movie A Good Little Devil.
Rumours and untruths, many propagated by Belasco himself, swirl
around him. Even his official biography by William Winter, written
with Belasco’s co-operation, is as slippery and unreliable as its
subject, in part because many of Belasco’s early memorabilia were
destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, leaving Winter to
rely on his subject’s erratic and creative memory.
Belasco is known to have been sued multiple times for plagiarism – a headline in the New York Times in August
1912 read, Always Being Sued, Sighs David Belasco. Is Accused Continually of Plagiarism by Barbers and Servant
Girls, He Says.
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14
Belasco actually spent much of his childhood right here in Victoria. His family, of Portuguese Jewish descent,
arrived in 1858 (the year Puccini was born). Victoria, a jumping-off point for the Fraser Gold Rush, was a boom
town crammed with picturesque characters.
During the Belascos’ seven-year stay, the town acquired its first local newspapers, its first commercial brewer, and
its first soda-water factory; it saw the construction of the Chapel of St. Ann's Academy, the Congregation Emanu-El
Synagogue, and the Victoria Theatre at Government and View, as well as the founding of the Victoria Philharmonic
Society, and the first visits from professional theatre troupes.
From the time he was five until he was about twelve, Belasco lived in Victoria. His father, Humphrey Abraham
Belasco, ran a tobacco shop on Yates Street, and young David attended the Colonial School (near the site of today’s
Central Middle School), then the Boys’ Collegiate School on Church Hill (now Burdett Avenue).
During this time, according to Winter’s biography, David was adopted as a mascot by the Victoria Fire Department
and ran away with the circus where he learned clowning and riding bareback – stories that should probably be
taken with a grain or two of salt.
Winter also tells us that David’s father had performed as a harlequin in
London pantomimes and became involved with the local Victoria
Theatre, where young David also appeared in a few small roles. It seems
then that Victoria was the scene of David Belasco’s first steps toward an
acting career and his discovery of the lure and excitement of the
theatrical life that he would later dominate for close to half a century!
At right is the Victoria Theatre at the corner of Government and View
Streets in the 1860s. It is the modest building with the pitched roof in
the centre of the photo.
Puccini created the opera with librettists Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. The last two members of the five-man
tag team that had created Manon Lescaut, Illica and Giacosa had also worked with Puccini on La Bohème and
Tosca.
Into Madama Butterfly, they wove strands from all three sources. The first act – the meeting and marriage of
Butterfly and Pinkerton – was drawn from Long’s story, with some local colour pulled from Loti’s novel. Belasco’s
play, which depicts only Butterfly's wait for Pinkerton and his return with Kate, formed the core of the remaining
acts.
While both Long and Belasco had their heroine speak a pidgin English that can be shocking to the modern reader,
Puccini’s vocal lines and Giacoso’s Italian poetry imbue her with grace and eloquence.
Puccini wholeheartedly embraced Belasco’s concept of the wordless vigil scene. To Belasco’s magical fusion of
silence and light he added the dimension of music with the ethereal Humming Chorus and Intermezzo which, like
Belasco’s vigil, evoke sunset, night, and morning.
Puccini’s next opera, La fanciulla del West (The Girl of the Golden West) was also based on a Belasco play. In fact
Belasco directed the 1910 world premiere at the Metropolitan Opera, starring Enrico Caruso. Belasco appears to
have found the idea of directing opera singers and choristers a bit daunting, but he believed they needed his knowhow if they were to become decent stage actors! His notes on the experience are immensely entertaining:
I had never before drilled an operatic company and I set about the task with a good many misgivings. The
chorus of more than one hundred people … were all inclined to gesticulate violently…I was much in doubt
whether grand-opera singers who commanded princely salaries and were accustomed to special prerogatives
unknown in the dramatic profession would be willing to submit to my dictation.
I soon discovered my doubts had been without foundation … never before had I dealt with a more tractable
and willing company of stage people. I was always put to the disadvantage of not understanding their
languages, and very few of them could speak mine. Yet in a short time I was able to communicate my wishes
through pantomime and they seemed to comprehend me at once…
Little by little I tamed this wriggling crowd …
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15
Every singer, however great his lyric gift, should be
taught indeed, should be made to act. Even Caruso's
God-given voice casts a more potent spell over his
audiences in the ratio that he improves as an actor…
I am glad to have directed the dramatic side of the
production … it taught me that the deities of the world
of song are not the eccentric creatures they are so
often represented to be, but sensible, obliging, and
companionable men and women.
At left, a signed souvenir of the première production of
The Girl of the Golden West. Left to right: Giulio GattiCasazza, General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera;
David Belasco, Playwright and Director; Arturo
Toscanini, Conductor, and Giacomo Puccini, Composer.
From The Life of David Belasco by William Winter.
Maureen Woodall
From Verismo to Turandot – A Puccini Primer
In the late 1900’s, a literary movement arose that came to be known as verismo (from the Italian word vero, or
truth). The verismo writers steeped their stories in human passion rather than reason, and created white-hot
tales of love, jealousy, revenge and violence. The leading proponents were Luigi Capuana and Giuseppe Verga, the
author of Cavalleria Rusticana, a short story on which Mascagni would base an opera.
Their stories proved great source material for a new age of Italian composers, searching for a post-Verdi voice that
could capture the social tensions of fin-de-siècle Europe. The first successful operas in this style, Pietro Mascagni’s
Cavalleria Rusticana and Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, were dramaturgically based on compression. Based on
short stories, these hour-long operas were created in reaction to the lengthening of the form during the late
Romantic period. Characters were drawn in bold primary colours. Arias were shorter, and rather than memorable
tunes and rhyming poetry, they offered rich, sweeping melodies based on narrative text. Plots were based on a
few incidents that took place during a short period of time. The endings of each opera had the qualities of “grand
guignol”, a populist French theatrical counterpart.
Puccini’s first operas, Le Villi and Edgar, were very much in this style. Le Villi is an operatic telling of the story of
the ballet Giselle, which presents the story of the forest spirits of jilted brides, who haunt and eventually kill false
lovers. Edgar ends with the murder of the leading lady at the hands of her evil rival for the title character’s
affections. Both operas showed veristic promise, but were not ultimately lasting.
With Manon Lescaut, Puccini began to establish a more complete version of verismo, rich with the passion of the
previous decade, but fuller in characterization and musical development. La Bohème embraces the verismo value
of celebrating the real lives of everyday people, created with a softer musical voice. Tosca followed, with a return
to the grand and gruesome passions of the earlier operas.
With Madama Butterfly, Puccini found a balance between the sentimental and the overwhelming. Great moments
of delicacy alternate with emotional outpourings that well from the emotional core of the characters. The villainy
is one of Pinkerton’s carelessness rather than a malevolence, Butterfly’s tragedy is one of misplaced hope rather
than blind jealousy or fatal illness. The conflict is both personal and cultural, a story of larger scope than the
private stories of the earlier operas.
After Butterfly, Puccini began a period of experimentation, with each opera different from the next. La Rondine
was his attempt at writing in the operetta style. With rapturous waltzes and an ending marked by the end of a
relationship rather than a life, La Rondine is perhaps Puccini’s most sentimental work. In La Fanciulla del West,
Puccini created an impressionistic landscape of the America of legend, equal parts Debussy and stories of the
West. The operas of Il Trittico (Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicci) highlight different aspects of Puccini’s
personality: passionate, spiritual, and fun-loving. His final opera Turandot, his most musically adventurous, was
more a precursor to the future than a celebration of the past.
David Shefsiek, 2008
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16
Giacomo Puccini
Shortly before he died, Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini wrote to a friend: "Almighty
God touched me with his little finger and said to me: 'Write for the theatre. Remember, only for the theatre.' And I
have obeyed that supreme commandment". Having accepted divine will, Puccini composed some of the most
popular operas ever written, earned a few millions, gambled most of the money away at the poker table, satisfied
his appetite for loose women, boats and fast cars and, most of all, exterminated the population of wild geese
around his villa at Torre del Lago.
This in a nutshell is the life of Puccini, who defined himself as "a mighty hunter of wild birds, opera librettos and
beautiful women", and who said "Just think! If I hadn't happened to take up music I would never have managed to
do anything in this world!"
Opera Italiana
Puccini’s Youth
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was born in
the Tuscan town of Lucca on December 22, 1858, the fifth child and first
son of Michele and Albina Puccini. He was named in honour of several of
his ancestors, who had been distinguished musicians and composers, each
of them holding the posts of organist of the Cathedral of San Martino and
Maestro di Cappella of the Republic of Lucca, and each a respected
composer. The Puccini musical dynasty began with young Giacomo’s great
great grandfather, another Giacomo Puccini (1712 to 1781), and was
carried on by his son, Antonio Benedetto Maria Puccini (1747 to 1832), his
son, Domenico Vincenzo Maria Puccini (1772 to 1815), and his son,
Michele (1813 to 1864), young Giacomo’s father.
When young Giacomo was still a child, his father Michele died, leaving
behind his pregnant 34-year-old wife Albina and seven children from 16
months to 12 years of age. In a striking example of job security, two of
Giacomo Puccini
Michele’s positions (choirmaster and organist at the Church of San
Martino and teacher at the Collegio Ponziano) were reserved for his son
and heir, six-year-old Giacomo. It was fully expected that Giacomo would
follow in his father’s footsteps. Mamma Puccini struggled to raise and
educate all of her children, in particular young Giacomo. Although he was destined to be a musician, Mamma
wanted him to have a good basic education first; she would say sagely, puro musico, puro asino (pure musician,
pure jackass). However, young Giacomo was an inattentive student. One of his teachers reported, He comes to
school only to wear out the seat of his pants. It took him five years to scrape through the four-year elementary
school curriculum.
He began his music studies with his mother’s brother, Fortunato Magi, a stern and forbidding man, who, not
without reason, considered the young scamp lazy, disrespectful, and untalented. Albina Puccini soon found a new
teacher, Carlo Angeloni, who taught harmony and composition at the Istituto Musicale Pacini. Angeloni had been a
student of Michele Puccini's, was a composer himself, and loved opera. Angeloni also introduced young Giacomo
to what would be a life-long hobby for him –hunting. The two established quite a rapport, both musically and on
the local waterfowl marshes.
By the age of 14 Giacomo was earning a bit of money playing organ in a number of the town's churches. He would
shock the congregations by slipping folksongs and hits from the latest operas (such as Verdi’s Rigoletto) into his
improvisations. He had other ways of using his musical talent to earn income. He took on a pupil. He played piano
in the local taverns, nearby resorts, and, it was rumoured, a brothel. He stole organ pipes and sold them to support
his smoking habit – playing around the notes of the missing pipes in order to hide the theft.
Puccini was familiar with opera; his composer ancestors had all written operas; his teacher composed operas and
introduced him to the works of Verdi. Then in 1876 he and some friends walked over a dozen miles to Pisa to see
the first local production of Verdi’s Aïda. He was so blown away by the performance that he decided to take up
writing operas. Many years later he said, When I heard Aïda in Pisa, I felt that a musical window had opened for
me.
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17
He continued his musical studies in Lucca, composing mostly church music, until in 1880, with the help of a loan
from his mother’s cousin Nicolao Cerù and a bursary from Queen Margherita of Italy, he was able to move to
Milan, the cultural capital of Italy, to study composition at the Milan Conservatory of Music. One of his teachers
was the highly regarded Italian violinist and composer Antonio Bazzini, whose only opera Turanda, had flopped at
Milan’s La Scala opera house in 1867. Turanda was based on a play by Carlo Gozzi, which would later inspire
Puccini’s last opera, Turandot. Another professor, who became Puccini’s mentor, was Amilcare Ponchielli, best
known as the composer of the opera La Gioconda.
During his three years at the Milan Conservatory, Puccini lived the life of a student, continually broke, asking
Mamma for money and good olive oil, eluding creditors, outwitting landlords, going to the opera, – in short, living
an impoverished artistic life not unlike that evoked in his later opera La Bohème.
His roommates included his younger brother Michele and the young Pietro Mascagni, who would make his name
as a composer of 15 operas, the best known being Cavalleria rusticana. Puccini and Mascagni were to remain
friends and rivals for many years; their wives did little to help the friendship. In 1921 Puccini’s wife Elvira would be
so outraged by a rumour that Mascagni would be appointed a senator before her far more deserving husband that
she threatened to renounce her Italian citizenship and emigrate.
The Early Operas
In 1883, with the encouragement of Ponchielli, who even found him a librettist, Puccini entered a competition for
a one-act opera. The opera, Le Villi, was based on the legend of the Willis, the ghosts of girls who, having died of
broken hearts, exact revenge on their faithless lovers by forcing them to dance until they die of exhaustion.
Perhaps the most famous retelling of this legend was the 1841 ballet Giselle.
Le Villi not only did not win the competition, it wasn’t even given an honourable mention, although Ponchielli
himself was one of the judges. It has been suggested that Puccini’s score, which he submitted right at the deadline,
was so illegible the judges didn’t consider it.
However, Puccini’s librettist, Ferdinando Fontana, put great effort into getting the opera performed and was able
to secure the support of Arrigo Boito, an influential critic, composer of the opera Mefistofele, and the librettist for
La Gioconda and later for Verdi’s final operas, Otello and Falstaff. Boito helped collect enough money to stage Le
Villi at the Teatro dal Verne, Milan on May 31, 1884, to an enthusiastic reception from audience and critics alike.
Marco Sala wrote in L’Italia, Puccini’s opera is, in our opinion, a small, precious masterpiece from beginning to end.
Antonio Gramolo of Il corriere della sera concurred:
The virtues we encounter in Le Villi reveal in Puccini an imagination singularly inclined to melody. In his music
there is freshness of fantasy, there are phrases that touch the heart because they must have come from the
heart, and there is craftsmanship so elegant and refined that from time to time we seem to have before us not
a young student but a Bizet or a Massenet … In short we believe that in Puccini we may have the composer for
whom Italy has been waiting for a long time.
And, from Filippo Filippi of La Perseveranza came this: Puccini reaches the stars … Poor competition panel, that
threw the opera into a corner like a rag!
Even Verdi took notice. The grand old man of Italian Opera, then in his 70s, wrote to a
friend, I have heard the composer Puccini well spoken of. … He follows modern trends,
which is natural, but remains attached to melody, which is above passing fashion.
Puccini also came to the attention of Giulio Ricordi, head of the powerful publishing
house Casa Ricordi. Ricordi published the score and within days of the premiere offered
Puccini a contract to expand Le Villi to two acts and to write a second opera, which
would premiere at Milan’s great opera house, La Scala. This contract meant Puccini now
had a small but regular income. More important, it was the beginning of a lifelong
association. Ricordi became Puccini’s publisher – and far more. He acted as Puccini’s
business manager, his mentor, his father-figure and friend; he weighed in with advice
and encouragement and helped resolve the multiple disputes between Puccini and his
librettists.
Giulio Ricordi
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In the summer of 1884 Puccini’s mother, who had been the bedrock of his life, died after a long illness.
Around that time, Puccini had fallen in love with a certain Elvira Gemignani, a married woman and the mother of
two children. Elvira left her husband and moved in with Puccini, creating a major scandal in Lucca and among
Puccini’s family and adding to his financial pressures for, despite the small income from Ricordi, he was not well
off. Elvira brought with her the elder of her two children, her daughter Fosca. In 1886 Elvira gave birth to
Giacomo’s son, Antonio. The couple was not married until 1904, after the death of Elvira's first husband.
Theirs was a tumultuous relationship, as stormy as any opera plot. Puccini was not a model husband; over the
years he had countless affairs with other women. He called himself a mighty hunter of wild fowl, operatic librettos
and attractive women. Elvira was uninterested in the arts, didn’t enjoy Puccini’s hunting and card-playing friends,
and grew less beautiful and more jealous and suspicious over the years. She eavesdropped on Giacomo, went
through his clothes, checked his mail. She even resorted to hunger strikes and to physical attacks on Giacomo and
at least one of the women with whom he was involved.
Puccini's second opera, Edgar, was poorly received at its 1889 premiere at La Scala. Subsequent revisions did not
make it the success that Puccini, Ricordi (and Ricordi’s shareholders) had hoped. Ricordi continued to support
Puccini and blamed much of the failure of Edgar on the libretto by Fontana. Ricordi stood up against the demands
of his shareholders that Puccini’s retainer be dropped, and he encouraged Puccini to write another opera.
Despite the modest allowance from Ricordi, which was an advance against future royalties, Puccini was barely
scraping by, especially now that he was supporting Elvira, her daughter, and their son Antonio. He was also
frequently ill and still in debt to Nicolao Cerù, who was asking for repayment of the loan he had given Puccini for
his studies in Milan.
In 1890 Puccini wrote in desperation to his younger brother, Michele, who had moved to Argentina: If you can find
work for me, I will come there. … And send me some money. … I have few hopes here.
In a later letter to Michele he said, With disaster right around the corner, it’s a miracle if I can get to the end of the
month. … And in September I have to move. …They have thrown me out of here for playing the piano at night. … If
you are doing well where you are, I will come there too.
In the end he did not go. Michele died of yellow fever in Rio de Janeiro in 1891.
Meanwhile, with Ricordi’s encouragement and expert stick-handling of a succession of librettists, work proceeded
on Puccini’s next opera, Manon Lescaut. As the premiere approached, Puccini, now 34, knew this opera was
probably his last chance to be successful and to escape the poverty in which he was living. If Manon Lescaut failed,
he would have to go back to making a living as what he called a third-rate organist.
Manon Lescaut: Puccini’s First Hit
During the three years it took him to write Manon Lescaut, Puccini went through librettist after librettist. The task
of writing the libretto involved some seven people, including the composer himself and his publisher Giulio Ricordi.
The librettists included Ruggero Leoncavallo, who would soon make his name as the composer and librettist of
Pagliacci and who would feud with Puccini over the right to compose La Bohème. Puccini was not satisfied with
Leoncavallo’s efforts on Manon Lescaut, and decided to ask the well known playwright Marco Praga to take on the
libretto for Manon Lescaut.
Praga brought in a friend Domenico Oliva, but Puccini demanded so many changes that Praga withrew. Oliva hung
on a little longer, but eventually, he too wearied of Puccini’s frequent demands for changes.
Now Giulio Ricordi recommended the poet and playwright Giuseppe Giacosa, and Giacosa called in a more
experienced librettist, Luigi Illica, for additional help. Together they reworked the libretto, and, with contributions
from Leoncavallo and Ricordi – not to mention Puccini himself – the work was finally completed.
With so many hands in the final libretto of Manon Lescaut, the decision was made to put no one’s name on the
final score except that of the composer.
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Giacosa, Illica, and Puccini went on to form what has been called the most successful composer/librettist team of
Puccini's career. Ricordi called them the Trinity. Illica and Giacosa worked on three of Puccini’s subsequent operas,
La Bohème, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly. This is not to say that Illica and Giacosa didn’t find Puccini as maddening
to work with as Praga and Oliva had. They were frequently at loggerheads with Puccini, and Ricordi often had to
act as peacemaker.
Manon Lescaut had its first performance on February 1, 1893, at the Teatro Regio, in Turin. It was an enormous hit,
and the reviews were enthusiastic.
In the Gazzetta Piemontese Giuseppe Depanis wrote approvingly of
the robust opera of a young Italian maestro, one who has done honour to his name and to his country. Art has
no boundaries, to be sure. None the less, national pride is legitimate: Last night was a good night for art and
for Italy.
Manon Lescaut quickly traveled throughout Italy and beyond. By the end of 1893 it had been seen in Buenos Aires,
Rio de Janeiro, St. Petersburg, Madrid, and Hamburg. The following year saw productions in Lisbon, Budapest,
Prague, Montevideo, Philadelphia, and Mexico.
The opera made Puccini’s reputation, and he went on to fulfill its promise with a series of masterpieces that are
among the most enduring in the repertoire.
The Successful Composer
The stupendous success of Manon Lescaut meant Puccini could begin to live well. He
could travel. He could buy the house he had rented in Torre del Lago since 1891. He
was also able to buy back the house in which he was born, a sentimental gesture only,
as he did not live there.
Meanwhile there was the question of Puccini’s next opera. Shortly before the
premiere of Manon Lescaut, Puccini began considering an opera based on the story
Scènes de la vie de Bohème by Henry Murger. The fact that this idea was ever
transformed into the great opera La Bohème is a minor miracle, given the personalities
of its creators, gadfly Puccini, and frustrated librettists Illica and Giacosa, not to
mention a very public spat between Puccini and his old friend and rival Leoncavallo
over the rights to the opera.
Luigi Illica
In March, 1893, Puccini and Ruggero Leoncavallo, who had helped with the libretto of
Manon Lescaut, met in a café. Puccini stunned Leoncavallo by announcing that he was
writing La Bohème. But Leoncavallo was also composing a La Bohème, using the very
libretto he had offered Puccini on a previous occasion — which Puccini had turned
down at the time! They quarrelled. Each went to the press to proclaim his moral
superiority, and the race was on.
The two La Bohèmes eventually premiered in successive years (Puccini’s first, in 1896).
Although Leoncavallo’s version was quite well received, it was eventually
overshadowed by the enormous success of Puccini’s work.
Despite the rivalry with Leoncavallo, Puccini took quite a while to get down to serious
work on La Bohème. He started in early 1893, but then turned his attention to the
excitement of buying a bicycle, which he named Mary, and to the challenges of
Giuseppe Giacosa
learning to ride. Hunting season was also a distraction. Puccini’s publisher, Giulio
Ricordi wrote: Puccini, Let not your passion for birds seduce you away from music. Therefore, an eye on the
gunsight, but your thoughts on Bohème!
In August 1893 Puccini invited librettist Luigi Illica to join him at his home, assuring him that he really was working
on La Bohème; however, his charming invitation focused more on the delights of country life:
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I am struggling with our characters. I am working, and having a good time. I’m killing vast numbers of birds while I
wait to leave for Brescia, where [the soprano, Emma] Zilli will amaze everyone with her verve … and kill off Manon
before her time! … In my house there are soft beds, chickens, geese, ducks, lambs, fleas, tables, chairs, guns,
paintings, statues, shoes, velocipedes, pianos, sewing machines, clocks, a map of Paris, good oil, fish, three
different qualities of wine (we don’t drink water), cigars, hammocks, wife [not strictly accurate: Puccini and Elvira
would not marry for 20 more years], children, dogs, cats, rum, coffee, different kinds of pasta, a can of rotten
sardines, peaches, figs, two outhouses, a eucalyptus, a well in the house, a broom, all for you (except the wife).
Come.
Puccini was also busy travelling to oversee various productions of Manon Lescaut and working on an opera called
La Lupa, which he eventually abandoned. His mercurial flitting from project to project maddened both Ricordi (for
whom time was money) and his hapless librettists.
The librettists, Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, were the dream team brought in by Ricordi to rescue Puccini’s
first great hit Manon Lescaut, after Puccini had torn through three other librettists. Although Giacosa, Illica, and
Puccini were the most successful composer/librettist team of Puccini's career, their relationship was stormy, for
Puccini was maddening to work with and impossible to satisfy.
Much of the credit for La Bohème’s existence must go to Ricordi, that master of shuttle diplomacy, who soothed
Puccini’s string of browbeaten librettists and refused to accept their regular resignations.
After one of the tiffs during work on La Bohème, Ricordi wrote Puccini to say,
[Illica is] very annoyed with you. He has almost decided to have nothing further to do with la Bohème. He
complains of having wasted much time and effort only to find himself used, cast aside, taken up again and
shoved away like a dog … I succeeded in making Illica go back to work … But he insists that I tell you that he is
going on with his work solely out of regard for me!!
At one point, Illica wrote To work for Puccini means to go through a living hell. Not even Job could withstand his
whims and his sudden volte-faces. I cannot keep up with his constant acrobatics.
In fall of 1893 Giacosa wrote Ricordi to say he was withdrawing from the project, leaving Illica to deal with Puccini
alone; Ricordi refused to accept his resignation.
Giacoso too found Puccini a bear to work for, writing to Ricordi in June 1895:
I’m tired to death of this constant reworking, touching up, adding, correcting, cutting, pasting together again,
pumping it up on the right, and paring it down on the left ... I have already redone this blessed libretto three
times, from start to finish, three times, and certain sections I have done four or five times ... Will it really be
finished? Or do I have to start again at the beginning?
After three years of work, they did finally finish La Bohème (nearly). Puccini made a few more changes after the
1896 premiere!
La Bohème is today considered one of Puccini’s best works, as well as one of the most popular and romantic
operas ever composed. However, it was not very well received when it premiered at Turin in 1896. Nor were the
operas that followed immediately successful, although most are now among the most popular in the operatic
repertoire.
Despite their stormy working relationship with Puccini, Illica and Giacosa stuck it out with the composer, creating
the libretti for his next two operas, Tosca and Madama Butterfly. Puccini remained as fickle and demanding as
ever; the librettists threatened to quit from time to time; and the exasperated Ricordi continued to play
peacemaker.
Tosca was a subject Puccini had been toying with since 1889, just after the premiere of Edgar. Based on a play
which Victorien Sardou had written in 1887 for the famous actress Sarah Bernhardt, Tosca is full of sex, violence,
torture, suicide, politics, and religion. It is perhaps not surprising that audiences liked it, while critics deplored the
sexuality, violence, and brutality.
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While Puccini was in London for the Covent Garden premiere of Tosca, he saw a play called Madame Butterfly by
American writer David Belasco. Although he understood very little of the English dialogue, he was moved by the
plight of the geisha and the exotic atmosphere of the play and, according to Belasco, rushed backstage to beg for
permission to use the play for his next opera. Belasco later wrote, I agreed at once and told him he could do
anything he liked with the play, and make any sort of contract, because it was impossible to discuss arrangements
with an impulsive Italian who has tears in his eyes and both his arms round your neck.
Madama Butterfly premiered at La Scala in February, 1904. Despite very high hopes and Puccini’s belief that it was
his best and most advanced opera, the first performance was a fiasco marked by hisses, catcalls, and rude
comments from the audience. The reaction may have been engineered by jealous rivals of Puccini. In any event,
Puccini withdrew the opera after that single performance, revised it, and unveiled the new version three months
later in Brescia. It was a triumph. Ever since, the touching and gloriously melodic tragedy of the geisha who loved
an American naval officer has been one of the most beloved of operas.
While he was working on Madama Butterfly, Puccini was also dealing with health problems and upheavals in his
personal life.
He enjoyed fast cars and boats and the good life. In February 1903 he was in an auto accident — his second in less
than a year. This time he nearly died. He had seriously
injured his leg and endured a long, painful recovery,
during the course of which he was also diagnosed with
diabetes.
Puccini in 1902 with his first car, a De Dion–Bouton.
At the time Puccini had been involved in a passionate
affair with a woman known only as Corinna. However,
Elvira’s husband died the day after Puccini’s car accident.
Elvira put pressure on Puccini to dump Corinna and
marry her; the Puccini family and Ricordi were also
urging him to marry Elvira. After Corinna threatened
legal action, Puccini settled out of court. As part of the
settlement he had to marry Elvira, and in January, 1904,
Puccini finally married the mother of his 17-year-old son.
Domestic bliss did not ensue. Elvira’s jealousy over the years had all too often been well founded. In 1908 she
accused Puccini of having an affair with Doria Manfredi, a servant girl who had started working for them after
Puccini’s car crash and had lasted longer than most servants in the tempestuous Puccini household. Elvira fired
Doria but continued to accuse and threaten her and talk insultingly to Doria’s mother and relatives. Eventually the
girl, swearing she was innocent, committed suicide. After an autopsy proved her innocent, her family sued Elvira,
and Elvira was sentenced to five months’ imprisonment. After an appeal, Puccini and the family settled out of
court. Although the Puccini marriage nearly broke up over this tragedy, the couple eventually reconciled –
although Puccini persisted in his philandering and Elvira in her jealous scenes.
Given Puccini’s health problems and the turmoil of the Doria Manfredi tragedy, it was not surprising that six years
elapsed between Madama Butterfly and the premiere of Puccini’s next opera which was also based on a play by
David Belasco. Puccini first saw Belasco’s The Girl of the Golden West in 1907 in New York, where he was attending
a Puccini festival at the Metropolitan Opera. The story of miners in the California gold rush intrigued Puccini.
Puccini’s long-time librettist, Giuseppe Giacosa, had died the previous year, and Puccini turned to a new librettist,
Italian-American Carlo Zangarini. As was usual with Puccini’s librettos, work did not proceed smoothly. When
Zangarini had not completed the libretto as quickly as Puccini wanted, he brought in a co-librettist, a young poet
and journalist named Guelfo Civinini. La Fanciulla del West, starring Enrico Caruso, finally premiered at the
Metropolitan Opera in New York in December 1910, with Arturo Toscanini as conductor.
In 1912 Giulio Ricordi, who had been instrumental to Puccini’s career and profoundly important as a friend and
professional manager, died. Casa Ricordi was now in the hands of Tito Ricordi, who did not get along well with
Puccini. Puccini’s next opera was published by Ricordi’s rival Sonzogno. La Rondine, the story of a love affair
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between a courtesan and a younger man, is more like a Viennese operetta than Puccini’s other works. Although its
music is charming, it is considered one of his less successful works.
La Rondine was followed by a trilogy of one-act operas, Il trittico. The three operas are Il tabarro, a tragic tale of
adultery and murder, Suor Angelica, the story of a nun who has had an illegitimate child, and Gianni Schicchi, a
comedy of fraud and young love, which has proved the most popular of the three.
Puccini then started work on his last opera, Turandot, based on a 1762 play by Carlo Gozzi. It is the gripping story
of a cruel Chinese princess whose suitors must answer three riddles or be put to death, of a prince who falls in love
with her, and a slave girl who loves the prince and dies to save him.
On November 29, 1924, before he could finish the opera, Puccini died in Brussels of throat cancer — a result of a
lifetime of heavy smoking. After a large funeral in Brussels, his body was taken to Milan for a national funeral.
Mussolini, who had become Prime Minister of Italy in 1922, announced his death in the Italian Parliament. Arturo
Toscanini conducted the Requiem from Act 3 of Edgar. Puccini was buried at the Toscanini family tomb in Milan;
two years later his remains were moved to his beloved home at Torre del Lago.
Turandot, considered by many his greatest opera, was completed by Franco Alfano and premiered in April, 1926,
at La Scala. At the point where Puccini’s score ended, Toscanini, the conductor, stopped the performance, saying,
The Opera finishes here for at this point the Maestro died. It was not until the second performance of Turandot
that the version completed by Alfano was played.
Puccini’s twelve operas include some of the greatest masterpieces in the repertoire. Their rich melodies, complex
and compelling characters, and passionate emotions made them very popular – and Puccini very rich. He had a gift
for creating works that were deeply theatrical, wondrously musical, and full of passion. His librettos contain
painstakingly detailed stage directions, which go beyond descriptions of the setting and delve into the psychology
of the characters. While his obsession for creating the perfect libretto and the perfect dramatic experience caused
havoc for his librettists, the characters, particularly his heroines, continue to enthrall audiences. His great gift for
melodic invention has also ensured his works a lasting place in the repertoire.
Maureen Woodall
At right: Poster by Leopoldo Metlicovitz for the première of Puccini's
Madama Butterfly in 1904
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Links and Resources
Madama Butterfly
http://www.pov.bc.ca/butterfly.html Pacific Opera Victoria's web pages on Madama Butterfly: svideos,
artist bios, musical selections, and more.
http://www.pov.bc.ca/pdfs/butterfly_newsletter.pdf Pacific Opera Victoria’s Newsletter: A shorter version
of Tracing the Butterfly Effect, plus an introduction to the artists.
https://www.chandos.net/pdf/CHAN%203070.pdf Libretto of the Opera: CD booklet from the Chandos
Opera in English series. The Libretto begins on p.70
http://www.murashev.com/opera/Madama_Butterfly_libretto_English_Italian
Italian and English
Libretto of the opera in
https://etd.ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file?accession=ucin1060955367 Puccini's Use of Japanese Melodies in
Madama Butterfly: This Master's Thesis by Kunio Hara (University of Cincinatti, 2000) provides a fascinating
exploration of some of the Japanese songs in Madama Butterfly and an examination of the state of music in
Japan at the time. It includes a detailed discussion of "Miyasan" ("My Prince"), a Japanese army song
associated with Yamadori in the opera. Its melody may be familiar to many, thanks to its use in Gilbert and
Sullivan's The Mikado.
Kunio Hara is now on faculty at the University of South Carolina, His primary areas of research include operas
of Giacomo Puccini, 19th- and 20th-century music, and exoticism in music.
Sources for the Story
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3995 Madame Chrysanthème, the semi-autobiographical novel by
Louis Marie Julien Viaud, a French naval officer who wrote under the name Pierre Loti. His novels – some 40
of them – recounted his travels and love affairs in such exotic locales as Tahiti, Senegal, Istanbul, Holy Land,
India and, of course, Japan. With their local colour, exoticism, and romance, these stories were lapped up by
an appreciative public – and found their way into operas: Madame Chrysanthème became an opera by André
Messager, while Le Mariage de Loti helped inspire Delibes' opera Lakmé.
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/LONG/cover.html Madama Butterfly, the short story by John Luther
Long, the Philadelphia lawyer who heard a story from his sister, Jennie Correll, about a tea-house girl named
Cho-San who had been abandoned by her lover.In his story, Cho-Cho-San attempts suicide but survives, and
when Mrs. Pinkerton comes to collect the baby, mother and child have vanished. Long's story, published in
1898, inspired David Belasco to create the one-act play that so impressed Puccini.
http://www.columbia.edu/itc/music/NYCO/butterfly/images/belasco_sm.pdf Madame Butterfly, the oneact play by David Belasco. Following its successful 1900 première in New York, Belasco toured the play to
London, where it opened at the Duke of York's Theatre and, by a happy fluke, was seen by Puccini who was in
town for the Covent Garden première of Tosca.
Although he couldn't speak English, Puccini was blown away by the theatricality and operatic potential of this
play. The play includes Belasco's daring vigil scene in which Butterfly waits all night for Pinkerton to arrive.
During this 14-minute scene, not a word is spoken. Belasco designed brilliant lighting effects to evoke night
coming on, the lamps being lit, the stars coming out, and dawn breaking. Belasco changed the ending by
having Butterfly successfully kill herself.
Both Long and Belasco had their heroine speak a pidgin English that can be shocking to the modern reader.
However, Puccini's vocal lines and Giacoso's Italian poetry imbue her with grace and eloquence.
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Was There a Real Madama Butterfly?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovy9sUp3ECs There has been much speculation on the models for the
real Butterfly, Pinkerton, and Trouble. In this short video, mezzo soprano Susan Graham recounts the theory
that the real Butterfly's son, known in the opera as Trouble or Sorrow, grew up in Nagasaki under the name
Thomas Albert Glover (Tom Glover or Kuraba Tomisaburo). The startling end to this story is that in August
1945, after the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Tom Glover committed suicide. From a 2008 Live From Lincoln
Center broadcast of Madama Butterfly.
http://www.playbillarts.com/features/article/2210.html This article by Jan van Rij, author of Madame
Butterfly: Japonisme, Puccini, and the Search for the Real Cho-Cho-San, explores the history of "temporary
marriages" in Japan and recounts the story of a woman who van Rij suggests might have been the real ChoCho-San. It is theorized that John Luther Long's sister, Jennie Correll, may have met the real Butterfly's grown
son while she was in Nagasaki with her missionary husband.
https://networks.h-net.org/node/22055/reviews/22113/earns-van-rij-madame-butterfly-japonisme-pucciniand-search-real-cho Madame Butterfly: The Search Continues is a review of van Rij's book by Lane Earns,
who discusses some of the controversy around the theory that Tom Glover is the real Trouble.
http://www.uwosh.edu/home_pages/faculty_staff/earns/tommy.html The Man Who Could Not Take Sides:
A Sketch of the Life of Kuraba Tomisaburo by Brian Burke-Gaffney. An extensive biography of Kuraba
Tomisaburo, aka Tom Glover.
http://mcjazz.f2s.com/GloverTB.htm Thomas Blake Glover: This web page tells the story of the man who
adopted Kuraba Tomisaburo and may have been his father – the Scottish industrialist and arms dealer
Thomas Blake Glover. There are many pictures of Nagasaki and the Glover family and friends. On the left are
links to three additional pages that talk about Thomas Blake Glover’s exploits as a gun runner, about his
adopted son Tomisaburo, and about Nagasaki.
http://oldphoto.lb.nagasaki-u.ac.jp/gloveratlas/index.php The Glover Atlas: Fishes of Southern and Western
Japan, on display at the University of Nagasaki. It’s in Japanese, but clicking
on the various symbols will bring up some of the beautiful illustrations in this
famous fish atlas, which was the life’s work of Thomas Albert Glover (who
may have been the child of the “real” Butterfly). Both Japanese and Latin
names are given. If you google the Latin name, you may find out more about a
particular species. You can also play around with online translators to convert
the Japanese into English words.
The pictures at right are from this beautiful atlas. From top to bottom
Diodon (Porcupinefish), whose spines stick out when it inflates itself by
taking in water and making itself much bigger and scarier looking.
Erosa erosa (daruma-okoze in Japan), also known as a pitted stonefish.
Pseudobagrus tokiensis, a kind of catfish.
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The Japanese in Canada
http://centre.nikkeiplace.org/ Nikkei National Museum and Cultural Centre. Based in Burnaby, BC, the
Nikkei National Museum and Cultural Centre works to honour, preserve, and share Japanese Canadian
history and culture. The website resources include audio interviews from the Japanese Canadian Oral History
Collection, created in partnership with Simon Fraser University, as well as back issues of Nikkei Images, a
publication that focuses on the history of ethnic Japanese (or Nikkei) in Canada.
http://centre.nikkeiplace.org/japanese-canadian-timeline/ Japanese Canadian timeline: The Nikkei National
Museum and Cultural Centre website also features a timeline that provides an overview of the history of
Japanese people in Canada.
David Belasco
http://www.shubert.nyc/theatres/belasco/ Website for New York’s Belasco Theatre, built by David Belasco
in 1907. The theatre still operates and was recently restored. Watch the video to see the glories of this
theatre and to learn about the great theatre impresario who built it.
http://www.seattleoperablog.com/2012/04/david-belasco-in-pacific-northwest.html David Belasco in the
Pacific Northwest by Jonathan Dean, Director of Public Programs and Media at Seattle Opera. This engaging
introduction to Belasco includes quotes from some of the most entertaining sections of Winter's biography of
Belasco.
https://archive.org/details/lifeofdavidbelasco01wintrich The Life of David Belasco by William Winter, Vol. 1
https://archive.org/stream/lifeofdavidbelas02wintuoft The Life of David Belasco by William Winter, Vol. 2
Many people today recognize the name of David Belasco only because Puccini composed two operas based
on his plays: Madama Butterfly and The Girl of the Golden West. Belasco was in fact an American theatre
legend – a flamboyant, larger-than-life character, an actor, playwright, and director, a scenic designer and an
important pioneer in lighting design, a theatre producer and impresario.
His official biography by William Winter, written with Belasco's cooperation, tells much about his wideranging career. Volume 1 includes Belasco’s childhood days in Victoria. Note that many of the stories Belasco
told Winter rely on his uncertain and perhaps creative memory. Winter died before finishing the biography,
and it was completed by his son Jefferson, who wrote, in the preface, that much original material about
Belasco, including a vast collection of original photos, programmes, letters, and articles, was destroyed in the
San Francisco earthquake fire of April 18, 1906, and Belasco’s “dubiosity about exact dates was more than
justified.” The biography was completed in 1918 and so does not cover the final 13 years of Belasco’s life.
Until his death in 1931 at the age of 77, Belasco was still going strong, writing and producing plays for his
Belasco Theatre.
https://archive.org/stream/theatrethroughits00bela#page/n7/mode/2up The Theatre through its Stage
Door by David Belasco. An entertaining book by David Belasco on the theatre and his own philosophy and
practice of producing plays and developing acting careers. His thoughts on directing opera singers for the
world première of The Girl of the Golden West at the Metropolitan Opera begin on page 101.
http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc163917/m1/1/
Ronald E. Boutwell: David Belasco’s
Naturalistic Stagecraft and Stage Lighting. Thesis, North Texas State University, 1968. A fascinating overview
of Belasco’s life and his approach to stagecraft and lighting, with photos from many of his productions.
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David Belasco’s Victoria
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/26048/26048-h/26048-h.htm Some Reminiscences of Old Victoria by Edgar
Fawcett. LIke David Belasco, Edgar Fawcett (1847-1923) came to Victoria as a child in the wake of the gold
rush. In his vivid memoir of Victoria in the 1850s and 1860s, Fawcett recalls a son of Abraham Belasco,
tobacconist of Yates Street in 1862, by name David. Those interested in theatricals (and who is not?) will
recognize the name as the prominent theatrical manager of New York. I little thought when going to school
with him at the Collegiate School, under Rev. C. T. Woods, that he would be so well known a character as he is
to-day.
http://web.uvic.ca/vv/index.html Victoria's Victoria: An exploration of Victoria during the reign of Queen
Victoria through articles and images. Explore by decades and select the 1860s to discover what Victoria was
like when the young David Belasco lived here. See a photo of the Victoria Theatre where Belasco is said to
have been a child actor; learn about the movers and shakers of the time. This website is a project of the
History department at the University of Victoria in partnership with Malaspina University College History
Department and several regional archives.
https://www2.viu.ca/homeroom/content/Schools/Public/colsch.htm The Colonial School in Victoria. As a
child, David Belasco attended the Colonial School, the first purpose-built public school in British Columbia,
located near the site of present day Central Middle School.
http://www.congregationemanuel.ca/uploads/1/8/6/0/18606224/temple-emanu-historicalreport_sept2011.pdf History of Congregation Emanu-El Synagogue. Built in 1863, while the Jewish Belasco
family was living in Victoria, this is the oldest continuously operating Synagogue in Canada.
http://www.timescolonist.com/life/tales-from-the-vault-victoria-served-by-all-black-militia-1.12891
Tales from the Vault: Victoria served by all-black militia. The 1858 Fraser Gold Rush saw a huge influx of
people to Victoria, including the Belasco family. The new arrivals also included a group of 600 blacks who had
fled north from California and were welcomed by Governor James Douglas. This article is an interesting look
at this group and the all-black Victoria Pioneer Rifle Company that was formed after the 1859 Pig War. The
leader of the black group was Mifflin Wistar Gibbs, who in 1866 became a city councilor in James Bay.
http://chinatown.library.uvic.ca/theatres Cultural Centres of Early Chinatown. Another group who
contributed to Victoria’s becoming a boom town with the 1858 gold rush were the growing Chinese
population. Between 1858 and 1885, five theatres were built in Victoria’s Chinatown. They were used
primarily for performances of Cantonese opera by travelling troupes from China. The first of these
Chinese theatres were located on Store Street and Cormorant Street shortly after 1858.
Maureen Woodall
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27
Study Activities
Explore Japanese Culture, History, Language, Folk Tales, and more
http://web-japan.org/kidsweb/index.html
Kids Web Japan is a website intended to introduce Japan to schoolchildren aged 10 and 14 who
live in other countries. Students can explore the regions of Japan, start to learn the language,
learn to make Sushi, read stories, learn about sumo wrestling and kimonos, and much more.
Read Naomi’s Road by Joy Kogawa
A book for children, based on Kogawa's adult book, Obasan
Naomi’s Road, Joy Kogawa’s memoir for children about a family’s experience in the WWI
Japanese internment camps of central BC, can help introduce the concepts of prejudice and
social justice to upper elementary children, and in turn be related to the themes of Madama
Butterfly. The book is widely available in bookstores and libraries, and may be ordered online
via Amazon and Indigo.
Naomi’s Road was also made into a children’s opera, commissioned by Vancouver Opera in
2005. With music by Ramona Luengen and a libretto by Ann Hodges, this compelling piece of
music theatre tells the story of Naomi, a young Japanese-Canadian girl whose family is interned
during the Second World War. Her story is one of personal growth as she learns to forgive and
persevere against the challenges of racism, cultural oppression and war. Even in the face of
bullying on both personal and national scales, Naomi chooses to stay proud of her home and
identity. Told through beautiful, accessible music, this touching story presents powerful lessons
on provincial history, racism, bullying, friendship, problem-solving, music and family values.
Filled with universal themes, audiences are able to easily identify with Naomi, her family, and
the challenges they must face on their journey.
Drawings by Matt Gould.
Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1986.
New, expanded ed.
Drawings by Ruth Ohi.
Markham, ON: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2005.
First published to critical acclaim in 1986, Naomi's Road is the story of a girl whose
Japanese-Canadian family is uprooted during the Second World War. Separated from
their parents, Naomi and her brother Stephen are sent to an internment camp in the
interior of British Columbia. For the young girl growing up, war only means that she
can no longer return to her home in Vancouver, or see her parents. Told from a
child's point of view and without a trace of anger or malice, Naomi's Road has been
praised as a powerful indictment of the injustice of war and the government's
treatment of Japanese-Canadian citizens, both during and well after World War II.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
28
Exploring Plot and Character
Create a character sketch for one of the characters in Madama Butterfly (for example, Cio-Cio-San, Suzuki,
Goro, Pinkerton). Questions you might ask about the character include:
What are we told about this character? (read the synopsis or the libretto for clues)
What else do we know about this character? (What do the character’s actions and words tell us?)
What is the character’s relationship with the other characters?
Why does the character make the choices he or she does?
Include evidence from the opera to support your claim. Keep in mind the music sung by your character. Do
the emotions conveyed through the music fit the character sketches?
Create a journal or a Facebook page for your character. Write about the events of the opera from that
character’s point of view. Write in the first person, and include only information that the character would
know.
After seeing the opera, look at your character sketch again. Does any aspect of the performance or the
music you heard change your view of the character you have profiled? Why?
Do the emotions conveyed through the music fit the character sketch?
After the Opera
Draw a picture of your favourite scene in the opera.
What is happening in this scene?
What characters are depicted?
Create an opera design.
Design and draw a stage set for a scene in Madama Butterfly.
Design and draw costumes for the characters in the scene.
Write a review of the opera.
What did you think about the sets, props and costumes?
Would you have done something differently? Why?
What were you expecting? Did it live up to your expectations?
Talk about the singers. Describe their characters. Describe their voices.
Who was your favourite character?
What was your favourite visual moment in the opera?
What was your favourite musical moment in the opera?
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29

Pacific Opera Victoria - Madama Butterfly Study Guide

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