Oct 12, 2026 · 34 min · 8 segments
A review and analysis of Opera Orlando's 2026 production of Giacomo Puccini's "Madame Butterfly" where I repeated call the leading man character a douchebag.
Madame Butterfly is a 1904 Italian language opera by Giacomo Piccini, 1858-1924, with a libretto by frequent collaborators Luigi Iliaca, 1857-1919, and Giuseppe Giacosa, 1847-1906.
This trio also created Tosca and La Boheme, which, along with Madame Butterfly, are in the top 10 most performed operas in the world.
While in London in 1900, Puccini saw the one-act play Madame Butterfly, A Tragedy of Japan, written by American playwright David Belasco, which was an adaptation of John Luther Long's short story, Madame Butterfly, from 1898.
Long's story was partially inspired by an 1887 French novel by Pierlotti called Madame Chrysanthem.
Though Puccini did not speak English, Belasco's play made enough of an impression that he decided he wanted to base an opera on it.
Puccini reworked the opera, and his first revision premiered three months later and did really well.
He kept tinkering with it, creating a third version in 1906 and fourth and fifth versions in 1907.
The 1907 version is apparently the standard version performed today, but Opera Orlando's artistic director Grant Pricer told me that the Opera Orlando production was not this standard version.
I asked him why it wasn't the last revision, and he smiled and said it was because the changes in version five were, quote, pretty unnecessary, unquote.
Pinkerton has every intention of leaving Cho-Cho-San soon after the wedding and going home to the States to get a real wife.
Act 2 picks up three years later, with Cho-Cho-San still believing Pinkerton, who did indeed leave, is going to come back to her, despite what everyone else says.
He sends Kate to get the boy, but Cho-Cho-San says she will only turn him over if Pinkerton comes to ask himself.
After Kate leaves, Cho-Cho-San sends her maid Suzuki away and then stabs herself.
Madame Butterfly is a 1904 Italian language opera by Giacomo Piccini, 1858-1924, with a libretto by frequent collaborators Luigi Iliaca, 1857-1919, and Giuseppe Giacosa, 1847-1906.
This trio also created Tosca and La Boheme, which, along with Madame Butterfly, are in the top 10 most performed operas in the world.
While in London in 1900, Puccini saw the one-act play Madame Butterfly, A Tragedy of Japan, written by American playwright David Belasco, which was an adaptation of John Luther Long's short story, Madame Butterfly, from 1898.
Long's story was partially inspired by an 1887 French novel by Pierlotti called Madame Chrysanthem.
Though Puccini did not speak English, Belasco's play made enough of an impression that he decided he wanted to base an opera on it.
Puccini reworked the opera, and his first revision premiered three months later and did really well.
He kept tinkering with it, creating a third version in 1906 and fourth and fifth versions in 1907.
The 1907 version is apparently the standard version performed today, but Opera Orlando's artistic director Grant Pricer told me that the Opera Orlando production was not this standard version.
I asked him why it wasn't the last revision, and he smiled and said it was because the changes in version five were, quote, pretty unnecessary, unquote.
Pinkerton has every intention of leaving Cho-Cho-San soon after the wedding and going home to the States to get a real wife.
Act 2 picks up three years later, with Cho-Cho-San still believing Pinkerton, who did indeed leave, is going to come back to her, despite what everyone else says.
He sends Kate to get the boy, but Cho-Cho-San says she will only turn him over if Pinkerton comes to ask himself.
After Kate leaves, Cho-Cho-San sends her maid Suzuki away and then stabs herself.
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