Madame Butterfly

[Matt McKeon]

For Mother's Day, I took the wife to see "Madame Butterfly" at the movie theater: the performance at the Met in New York was being livecast. I had never seen Puccini's tragic opera of a young Japanese girl toyed with by an callous American naval officer. I'm not an opera fan, this is only the second I've seen, but the performance by Aleksandra Kursak was very affecting. "Imperialism!" concluded the wife.

 

[jgoodguy]

For Mother's Day, I took the wife to see "Madame Butterfly" at the movie theater: the performance at the Met in New York was being livecast. I had never seen Puccini's tragic opera of a young Japanese girl toyed with by an callous American naval officer. I'm not an opera fan, this is only the second I've seen, but the performance by Aleksandra Kursak was very affecting. "Imperialism!" concluded the wife.

Women betrayed by their lovers is a common theme in opera and life.

An Italian who apparently never visited either the US or Japan, writes a Italian opera, based on an American Play, Madame Butterfly (play), he saw in London, based on a American short story, Madame Butterfly (short story) based on a French novel Madame Chrysanthème based on a French naval officer who had a paid relationship with Kiku (Chrysanthemum).

Loti (right) with "Chrysanthème" and Pierre le Cor in Japan, 1885.

ref
Pierre Loti thinly disguised himself in his 1887 novel Madame Chrysanthème. Because so much of Loti's plot reappears in Long's story, it is assumed to have been a source.[5] However, "temporary" or "Japanese marriages" were a widespread phenomenon after the country's liberalization of marriage laws, and a Japanese woman abandoned by her foreign spouse was far from a unique occurrence.[6] Butterfly's belief that her marriage was permanent was the deviation from the norm.[2]: 152 


Next time take her to an Opera about a woman betraying her lover.

And thank for the inspiration to do some research.

 

[Matt McKeon]

Women betrayed by their lovers is a common theme in opera and life.

An Italian who apparently never visited either the US or Japan, writes a Italian opera, based on an American Play, Madame Butterfly (play), he saw in London, based on a American short story, Madame Butterfly (short story) based on a French novel Madame Chrysanthème based on a French naval officer who had a paid relationship with Kiku (Chrysanthemum).
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Loti (right) with "Chrysanthème" and Pierre le Cor in Japan, 1885.

ref
Pierre Loti thinly disguised himself in his 1887 novel Madame Chrysanthème. Because so much of Loti's plot reappears in Long's story, it is assumed to have been a source.[5] However, "temporary" or "Japanese marriages" were a widespread phenomenon after the country's liberalization of marriage laws, and a Japanese woman abandoned by her foreign spouse was far from a unique occurrence.[6] Butterfly's belief that her marriage was permanent was the deviation from the norm.[2]: 152 


Next time take her to an Opera about a woman betraying her lover.

And thank for the inspiration to do some research.

Very interesting! Its funny when the callous Lt. Pinkerton arrives, there is a brief Star Spangled Banner fanfare.

 

[jgoodguy]

Very interesting! Its funny when the callous Lt. Pinkerton arrives, there is a brief Star Spangled Banner fanfare.

That is interesting. I find, recalling the racism of the time, that his return to take his child back and his wife allowing to be a bit odd. The French guy's rent a wife would be so much more common.