M. Butterfly

Content warning: This section of the guide contains discussion of death by suicide.

Madama Butterfly is a 1904 opera by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini. The opera’s plot partially derives from an 1887 French novel entitled Madame Chrysanthème by Pierre Loti. Hwang’s play draws heavily on Puccini’s opera, using it to inform the relationship between Rene Gallimard and Song Liling. Though the play discusses some of the opera’s major plot elements, it may be useful to approach the text with a more comprehensive knowledge of the plot.

Madama Butterfly takes place in Japan and is set contemporaneously in the era that the opera was written. While stationed in Nagasaki, US naval lieutenant Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton rents a house and buys the right to marry a 15-year-old local girl named Cio-Cio-San (or Butterfly). Pinkerton isn’t serious about the relationship and plans to eventually abandon Butterfly for an American wife. Butterfly, on the other hand, is elated by the prospect of marrying an American man and converts to Christianity before the wedding. The wedding ceremony is held at Pinkerton’s house. However, Butterfly’s uncle barges into the ceremony, disowning Butterfly for her conversion. The guests scatter, though Pinkerton and Butterfly resolve to devote themselves to each other in love.