However, Madam Butterfly is different from other Puccini’s operas for its strongly emphasised exotic elements. Madam Butterfly has all the characteristics of Puccini’s musical and drama style we saw in his earlier operas La bohème and Tosca : intimate and warming lyrics, sudden and often brutal contrast, temperamental sections, exciting gradations, interestingly instrumented mosaic of music, intensive orchestral emphasis of drama, warm abundance along the melodic lines, which is the trait of strictly Italian opera tradition. Deeply impressed with the poetry of little Japanese geisha’s plight, her true and deep love filled with longing, disappointment and sacrifice, he decides to compose an opera to the libretto written after this story by his literary associates Illica and Giacosa. During his stay in London, Puccini saw the play Madam Butterfly, written by John Long and dramatized by David Belasco. As he said, the search for a new libretto was agonizing. Using the principal themes and arias taken from the Naxos recording of the complete work, Thomson Smillie is informative yet entertaining, enabling the listener to get more from this remarkable art form.Upon the success of Tosca at the premiere, 14 January 1900, in Theatro Costanzi in Rome, Puccini was looking for suitable contents of a new opera. This series introduces, in words and music, the plot and background of major operas. The fate of Madama Butterfly – married to an American sailor and then abandoned – engages our emotions, as it obviously did Puccini’s, to a degree equalled by few other opera heroines. The title heroine has a fragility wonderfully expresed in her entry music, deep sexual instincts as shown in the love duet, and immense tragic stature in her last hours.

Madama Butterfly really does run the gamut of operatic emotion. Opera Explained: Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (Audiobook CD)Īn introduction to Puccini’s opera, which is suitable for music-lovers as well as the most intellectual listener.

Puccini opera madame butterfly