The Evolution of Madame Butterfly

Who Is She?

Admiral Perry Enters Japan

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On July 8, 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry entered Edo Wan (Tokyo Bay) leading 4 American warships: The Susquehanna, the Mississippi, the Saratoga, and the Powhatan

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Motives for American contact with Japan:

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Coal source for steamships

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Protection of shipwrecked American sailors

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Competition with empire-building Britain, France and Russia

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Trade markets

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Missionaries

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Perry delivered letters from President Fillmore and left, promising to return in 1854.

Japanese-American Agreements

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Code of conduct for shipwrecked sailors and whalers Coal sales Opening up of trading sites beyond Nagasaki, the traditional foreigners’ ghetto Transition period to put full agreement into effect Japan remained a sovereign country

Meiji Government 1868-1911

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1868: Restoration of Emperor

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Rapid industrialization

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Modernization of society

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politics -- 1889 adopted Constitutional government

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education -- 1872 set up Western style -- 20,000 schools within 3 years

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expansionist foreign policy -- victories in Sino Japanese War 1894-95 and Russo-Japanese War 1904 05

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Wealthy, educated nation with strong military

The French Novel Loti’s Madame Chrysantheme

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Madame Chrysanthemum by Pierre Loti, 1887 Fictionalized travel narrative recounting the author’s time in Japan Affair between French naval officer (Loti) and a geisha Colonialist and imperialist responses to gender, race and class

The American Story: Long’s Madame Butterfly

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John Luther Long’s story Madame Butterfly first appeared in 1898 in Century magazine.

Sources include accounts from Long’s sister, Mrs. Correll, who had been a missionary in Japan, and probably Loti’s novel Long described himself as “a sentimentalist, and a feminist and proud of it.” Long’s Cho Cho San attempts suicide but is distracted by her son. At the end of the story, they disappear.

The Play: Belasco’s Madame Butterfly

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David Belasco, playwright, director and producer collaborated with Long to write a one-act play that was performed in NYC and London in 1900.

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Production was famous for its intense emotionalism and sense of exotic place.

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Puccini saw production in London and immediately applied for the rights transform it into an opera.

The Opera: Puccini’s Madama Butterfly

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Giacomo Puccini’s opera premiered in February, 1904, at La Scala in Milan: it was a disaster. The audience booed and hissed.

A somewhat revised version in Brescia, Italy in May, 1904 . The audience demanded seven encores and 32 curtain calls.

Madama Butterfly

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The slightly revised 1906 Paris version is today’s standard version.

Puccini extensively researched Japanese customs, words, art, architecture and music. The opera includes snatches of Japanese folk songs and its national anthem as well as “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Basic Opera Elements

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Voices:

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Soprano : high-range female singing voice

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Mezzo : medium-range female voice

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Alto : low –range female voice

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Tenor : high-range male voice

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Baritone : medium-range male voice

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Bass : low-range male voice

Basic Opera Elements

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Libretto : the words of the opera

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Score : the music of the opera

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Aria : solo

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Duet : song sung by two singers

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Recitative : vocal music based on imitation speech with a minimum of accompaniment

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Coloratura : fancy decorations in vocal music – many fast little notes in complicated passages

The Musical: Miss Saigon

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Conceived and composed by Alain Boublil and Claude Michel Schönberg, Saigon in 1980 .

Miss opened in London in September 1989 (closed 10/30/1999) and on Broadway

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Set in Vietnam in 1975 as the Viet Cong are invading Saigon, and the Americans are on their out of the country.

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Chris, an American GI is attracted to Kim, a “bar-girl” at a club called Dreamland.

Another Play: M. Butterfly

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M Butterfly by David Henry Hwang was based on a New York Times story.

It premiered in Washington DC in February 1988 and opened on Broadway in March 1988.

Directed by John Dexter, starred John Lithgow and B.D. Wong.

Won the Tony Award , the Outer Critics Circle Award, the John Gassner Award, and the Drama Desk Award for best play.

David Henry Hwang on M. Butterfly

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“I came up with the basic ’arc’ of my play: the Frenchman fantasizes that he is Pinkerton and his lover is Butterfly. By the end of the piece, he realizes that it is he who has been Butterfly, in that the Frenchman has been duped by love; the Chinese spy, who exploited that love, is therefore the real Pinkerton.”

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The neo-Colonialist notion that good elements of a native society, like a good woman, desire submission to the masculine West speaks precisely to the heart of our foreign policy.”

Why the Fascination?

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Tragic love story

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The exotic Orient

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Woman as “Other”

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Oriental woman as fragile exotic Other

“For the myths of the East, the myths of the West, the myths of men and the myths of women -- these have so saturated our consciousness that truthful contact between nations can only be the result of heroic effort.” D. H. Hwang