History Theatre / MadameButterfly

** Pinkerton. In the novel, he's the one who bans Butterfly from seeing her family. In the play, he thinks they're silly but is understandably horrified by their renunciation of her. The novel also gives no indication that he feels the slightest guilt for how he's treated Butterfly.

* YamatoNadeshiko: Subverted and massively deconstructed. In contrast to the meekness of a "proper wife," Butterfly retains much of the panache of a geisha, such as when Yamadori comes a'courting, and she sasses him, then mocks him by impersonating an American judge ready to throw him in jail, before calmly calling for tea. But aside from that she’s much too codependent, and it’s exactly because of her lack of strength that she commits suicide.

''Madame Butterfly'' (''Madama Butterfly'' in Italian) is a three-act opera by Music/GiacomoPuccini to a libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica. Based on both the French novel ''Madame Chrysanthème'' and the American short story and play ''Madame Butterfly'' and ''Madame Butterfly: A Tragedy of Japan'', it tells the story of Cio-Cio San (nicknamed Butterfly) in 1904, Nagasaki, Japan. Cio-Cio San, a beautiful 15-year-old geisha, is engaged to be married to a U.S. Naval Officer named Pinkerton. He confides to the American consul Sharpless that he admires her for her innocence and beauty, like a young delicate butterfly, and the fact that he can just as easily pluck her wings. He only wants to temporarily marry her until he finds an American bride but lets the lovestruck Butterfly believe that the marriage is permanent. Sharpless warns Pinkerton that treating this union casually may have tragic consequences. The wedding takes place, but Butterfly's uncle disapproves of the fact that she renounced her religion for her husband. Her family disowns her, but Pinkerton kicks out the relatives and comforts her.

''Madame Butterfly'' (''Madama Butterfly'' in Italian) is a three-act opera by Music/GiacomoPuccini. Based on both the French novel ''Madame Chrysanthème'' and the American short story and play ''Madame Butterfly'' and ''Madame Butterfly: A Tragedy of Japan'', it tells the story of Cio-Cio San (nicknamed Butterfly) in 1904, Nagasaki, Japan. Cio-Cio San, a beautiful 15-year-old geisha, is engaged to be married to a U.S. Naval Officer named Pinkerton. He confides to the American consul Sharpless that he admires her for her innocence and beauty, like a young delicate butterfly, and the fact that he can just as easily pluck her wings. He only wants to temporarily marry her until he finds an American bride but lets the lovestruck Butterfly believe that the marriage is permanent. Sharpless warns Pinkerton that treating this union casually may have tragic consequences. The wedding takes place, but Butterfly's uncle disapproves of the fact that she renounced her religion for her husband. Her family disowns her, but Pinkerton kicks out the relatives and comforts her.

''Madame Butterfly'' (''Madama Butterfly'' in Italian) is a three-act opera by Music/GiacomoPuccini. Based on both the French novel ''Madame Chrysanthème'' and the American short story and play ''Madame Butterfly'' and ''Madame Butterfly: A Tragedy of Japan'', it tells the story of Cio-Cio San (nicknamed Butterfly) in 1904, Nagasaki, Japan. Cio-Cio San, a soprano and beautiful 15-year-old girl, is engaged to be married to a U.S. Naval Officer named Pinkerton. He confides to the American consul Sharpless that he admires her for her innocence and beauty, like a young delicate butterfly, and the fact that he can just as easily pluck her wings. He only wants to temporarily marry her until he finds an American bride but lets the lovestruck Butterfly believe that the marriage is permanent. Sharpless warns Pinkerton that treating this union casually may have tragic consequences. The wedding takes place, but Butterfly's uncle disapproves of the fact that she renounced her religion for her husband. Her family disowns her, but Pinkerton kicks out the relatives and comforts her.

''Madame Butterfly'' (''Madama Butterfly'' in Italian) is a three-act opera by Music/GiacomoPuccini. Based on both the French novel ''Madame Chrysanthème'' and the American short story and play ''Madame Butterfly'' and ''Madame Butterfly: A Tragedy of Japan'', it tells the story of Cio-Cio San (nicknamed Butterfly) in 1904, Nagasaki, Japan. Cio-Cio San, a soprano and beautiful 15-year-old girl, is engaged to be married to a U.S. Naval Officer named Pinkerton. He confides to the American consul Sharpless that he admires her for her innocence and beauty, like a young delicate butterfly, and the fact that he can just as easily pluck her wings. He only wants to temporarily marry her until he finds an American bride, but lets the lovestruck Butterfly believe that the marriage is permanent. Sharpless warns Pinkerton that treating this union casually may have tragic consequences. The wedding takes place, but Butterfly's uncle disapproves of the fact that she renounced her religion for her husband. Her family disowns her, but Pinkerton kicks out the relatives and comforts her.

In the next act, three years have passed and Pinkerton is off and gone. Butterfly has lived alone with her maid Suzuki. While Suzuki claims that Pinkerton will never return, Butterfly insists that he will return to her. Sharpless then shows up at her home with a letter from Pinkerton. Butterfly excitedly thinks the letter says he will be back soon. Sharpless is not sure what to say to her since the actual contents of the letter reveal that Pinkerton is indeed returning to Japan, but that he has moved on with his life and no longer attaches himself to his Japanese wife. When Sharpless tries to tell Butterfly this, she reveals that she gave birth to Pinkerton's child after he left. She calls him Sorrow but declares faithfully that when her husband comes home the child will be called Joy. Sharpless cannot bear to crush such a loyal heart and has to leave without telling her of Pinkerton's true treachery.

''Madame Butterfly'' (''Madama Butterfly'' in Italian) is a three-act opera by Music/GiacomoPuccini. Based on both the French novel ''Madame Chrysanthème'' and the American short story and play ''Madame Butterfly'' and ''Madame Butterfly: A Tragedy of Japan'', it tells the story of Cio-Cio San (nicknamed Butterfly) in 1904, Nagasaki, Japan. Cio-Cio San, a soprano and beautiful 15 year old girl, is engaged to be married to a U.S. Naval Officer named Pinkerton. He confides to the American consul Sharpless that he admires her for her innocence and beauty, like a young delicate butterfly, and the fact that he can just as easily pluck her wings. He only wants to temporarily marry her until he finds an American bride, but lets the lovestruck Butterfly believe that the marriage is permanent. Sharpless warns Pinkerton that treating this union casually may have tragic consequences. The wedding takes place, but Butterfly's uncle disapproves of the fact that she renounced her religion for her husband. Her family disowns her, but Pinkerton kicks out the relatives and comforts her.

In the next act, three years have passed and Pinkerton is off and gone. Butterfly has lived alone with her maid Suzuki. While Suzuki claims that Pinkerton will never return, Butterfly insists that he will return to her. Sharpless then shows up at her home with a letter from Pinkerton. Butterfly excitedly thinks the letter says he will be back soon. Sharpless is not sure what to say to her since the actual contents of the letter reveal that Pinkerton is indeed returning to Japan, but that he has moved on with his life and no longer attaches himself to his Japanese wife. When Sharpless tries to tell Butterfly this, she reveals that she gave birth to Pinkerton's child after he left. She calls him Sorrow, but declares faithfully that when her husband comes home, the child will be called Joy. Sharpless cannot bear to crush such a loyal heart and has to leave without telling her of Pinkerton's true treachery.

When, however, he arrives, Butterfly has fallen asleep, exhausted by her vigil. But Pinkerton does not arrive alone: He arrives with his wife, Kate, who he married after leaving Japan. Informed of the existence of the child, Pinkerton and his wife have come to take him away and raise him in America. Unable to face his guilt, Pinkerton leaves his wife to handle it. Butterfly's despair upon finding this woman in her home does not shake her composure. Kate begs for Butterfly's forgiveness and promises to treat the child as her own. With hardly any other choice, Butterfly accepts this, gives up her child, and turns to all that she has left: To die with honour when one can no longer live with honour.

* AbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder: Oh, Pinkerton. He seems fond of Butterfly in Act I. Then after he leaves, it appears he's completely forgotten his Japanese home - no letters, no money, and, oh yeah, he marries an American woman. On the other hand, even in the first act, [[JerkAss Pinkerton never viewed his marriage to Butterfly as permanent and fully intended to marry an American woman whom he thinks will be his real wife!]]

** Pinkerton. In the novel, he's the one who bans Butterfly from seeing her family. In the play, he thinks they're silly, but is understandably horrified by their renunciation of her. The novel also gives no indication that he feels the slightest guilt for how he's treated Butterfly.
** Kate (named Adelaide in the novel) is also made kinder and empathetic in the opera; in the novel she looks forward to taking away the baby and doesn't care how the mother will feel.

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Sharpless, in Act II, asks Butterfly "What would you do if Pinkerton never came back?" This question slams the music to a halt, and it totally changes the tone of their conversation. Butterfly slowly answers that she could return to being a geisha, or, better yet, she could die. [[StepfordSmiler Her pleasant demeanor falls away,]] she turns grim, and soon demands that Sharpless leave.
* AsianBabymama: The main character, odd for the trope.

* BreakTheCutie: More like "pulverize". Come the third act, Butterfly learns in quick succession that a) while Pinkerton ''has'' come back, it wasn't to see her b) he clearly never loved her at all and has married an American woman and c) they've come to take her child - the only thing that's really kept her going these past three years - away from her.

--> '''Butterfly:''' Chi mai vide a bimbo del Giappone occhi azzurrini? E il labbro? E i ricciolini d'oro schietto? [[labelnote:English]]Who ever saw blue eyes on a Japanese boy? And the lip? And the clear golden curls?[[/labelnote]]

* {{Eagleland}}, flavor 1: Butterfly's concept of America as a land of freedom, and Christianity as the One True Faith. The composer mocks it by introducing Pinkerton with a "Star Spangled Banner" theme.

* {{Geisha}}: Cio-Cio San was one before Pinkerton married her, and finds the thought of returning to that profession shameful.

* ImpoverishedPatrician: Butterfly and her whole family, from a fine samurai bloodline. In her own lifetime, they knew great wealth, but with her father's disgrace and death, they lost everything. It looks like things will turn around when Butterfly marries Pinkerton, but at the start of Act II, all the money he left behind has dried up.

* InnocentSoprano: The eponymous heroine, a soprano, is a naive and innocent girl of fifteen (around eighteen in the finale), who falls deeply in love with the very undeserving Pinkerton and blindly trusts him throughout the first two acts, despite everyone in the second act telling her he's not coming back. Even when she learns he has married another, she refers to that woman as the happiest one in the world.

* IWillWaitForYou: Butterfly waits three years for Pinkerton's return, believing he will come back and bring her to live with him in America like he promised.
* JerkassHasAPoint: The matchmaker Goro's efforts to get Butterfly to divorce Pinkerton and marry prince Yamadori may have arisen from his own self interest and he went about it very badly, but Goro was absolutely right about Cio-Cio San's situation and the marriage would have been incredibly beneficial to her.
* KarmaHoudini: In the end Pinkerton essentially gets everything he wanted -- his proper American life with an inconvenient Japanese wife no longer in the picture. However, his wife Kate has promised Butterfly to care for her son as her own, leaving Pinkerton a child whose very presence will always remind him that his rashness and cruelty killed the boy's mother. Also, Kate is just as appalled as everyone else by the way he treated Butterfly, judging by the way she asks for the girl's forgiveness, and it will probably always remain between them and cool their relationship.
* {{Leitmotif}}: Several. There's one for Butterfly's father's knife as well as Pinkerton's already-mentioned "Star Spangled Banner", just to name two.
* LoveMartyr: Butterfly is a resounding example. Pinkerton sees her as a pretty porcelain doll, a plaything for a few months, but in fact she is deeply loving and the soul of loyalty, wasted on a man not worthy of her.
* MaidAndMaiden: Butterfly, the plucky heroine, is the Maiden (albeit a married one) and practical, kindhearted Suzuki is her Maid.

* OldRetainer: Suzuki is still around in Act II even when the other servants have left and the money is all gone. Her biggest deviation from the trope is that she's not hung up on propriety. She chatters a lot, and is openly affectionate towards Butterfly and Sorrow.
* OnlySaneMan: Suzuki and Sharpless, who are constantly trying to get their respective friends to see sense and are ''never'' listened to.

* ChekhovsGun: The dagger that Butterfly uses to eventually kill herself..

This opera has had countless adaptations, including one film adaptation in 1915 with Creator/MaryPickford and another in 1932 starring Creator/SylviaSidney as Cio-Cio San and Creator/CaryGrant as Pinkerton. One with a page on this wiki being ''Theatre/MissSaigon'' and ''Manga/MademoiselleButterfly''. It also inspired the play ''Theatre/MButterfly'' and the 1922 film ''Film/TheTollOfTheSea'', and received quite a few references in Music/{{Weezer}}'s album ''Music/{{Pinkerton}}''.

* IllKillYou: Goro tells Butterfly that in America, when a child is born with a curse, he is shunned by everyone. Outraged, Butterfly grabs her father's knife, calls him a liar, and threatens to kill him if he ever says that again. She then reassures her son that his father will take them far away to America and everything will be fine.

* HollywoodGenetics: Butterfly's child has blonde (recessive) hair to leave no room for doubt that he is Pinkerton's son, even though he would be more likely to inherit black (dominant) hair from his mother.

* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Oh god, Butterfly is this UpToEleven.

* YamatoNadeshiko: Subverted and massively deconstructed. In contrast to the meekness of a "proper wife," Butterfly retains much of the panache of a geisha, such as when Yamadori comes a'courting, and she sasses him, then mocks him by impersonating an American judge ready to throw him in jail, before calmly calling for tea. But aside from that she’s much too codependent, and it’s exactly because of her lack of strength that causes her to commits suicide.

* YamatoNadeshiko: Subverted and massively deconstructed. In contrast to the meekness of a "proper wife," Butterfly retains much of the panache of a geisha, such as when Yamadori comes a'courting, and she sasses him, then mocks him by impersonating an American judge ready to throw him in jail, before calmly calling for tea. But aside from that she’s much too co defendant, and it’s exactly because of her lack of strength that causes her to commit suicide.

* FamousNamedForeigner: The American Creator/BenjaminFranklin [[PinkertonDetective Pinkerton]] (remember the opera was written in Italy). It [[MeaningfulName suits him]], given that Franklin was both an important diplomat and a famous womanizer.

* AbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder: Oh, Pinkerton. He seems fond of Butterfly in Act I. Then after he leaves, it appears he's completely forgotten his Japanese home - no letters, no money, and, oh yeah, he marries an American woman. On the other hand, even in the first act, {{JerkAss Pinkerton never viewed his marriage to Butterfly as permanent and fully intended to marry an American woman whom he thinks will be his real wife!}}

* AbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder: Oh, Pinkerton. He seems fond of Butterfly in Act I. Then after he leaves, it appears he's completely forgotten his Japanese home - no letters, no money, and, oh yeah, he marries an American woman. On the other hand, even in the first act, [[{{JerkAss Pinkerton never viewed his marriage to Butterfly as permanent and fully intended to marry an American woman whom he thinks will be his real wife!}}]]

* AbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder: Oh, Pinkerton. He seems fond of Butterfly in Act I. Then after he leaves, it appears he's completely forgotten his Japanese home - no letters, no money, and, oh yeah, he marries an American woman. On the other hand, even in the first act, [[{{JerkAssPinkerton never viewed his marriage to Butterfly as permanent and fully intended to marry an American woman whom he thinks will be his real wife!}}]]

* AbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder: Oh, Pinkerton. He seems fond of Butterfly in Act I. Then after he leaves, it appears he's completely forgotten his Japanese home - no letters, no money, and, oh yeah, he marries an American woman. On the other hand, even in the first act, {{JerkAssPinkerton never viewed his marriage to Butterfly as permanent and fully intended to marry an American woman whom he thinks will be his real wife!}}

* AbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder: Oh, Pinkerton. He seems fond of Butterfly in Act I. Then after he leaves, it appears he's completely forgotten his Japanese home - no letters, no money, and, oh yeah, he marries an American woman.

This opera has had countless adaptations, including one film adaptation in 1915 with Creator/MaryPickford and another in 1932 starring Creator/CaryGrant as Pinkerton. One with a page on this wiki being ''Theatre/MissSaigon'' and ''Manga/MademoiselleButterfly''. It also inspired the play ''Theatre/MButterfly'' and the 1922 film ''Film/TheTollOfTheSea'', and received quite a few references in Music/{{Weezer}}'s album ''Music/{{Pinkerton}}''.

* TheIngenue: Poor Butterfly.

* TheSoprano: Cio-Cio San.

* YamatoNadeshiko: Massively subverted. Butterfly is ''supposed'' to be a "proper Japanese woman" and a sympathetic victim of Western racism. However, technically speaking she ''fails'' at being a YamatoNadeshiko, as [[LoveMartyr she]] [[TheIngenue completely]] [[UnrequitedTragicMaiden lacks]] [[SilkHidingSteel the required core of steel]]; nowadays, poor Butterfly is seen as a TropeCodifier on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotypes_of_East_Asians_in_the_Western_world#.22China_doll.22_stereotype how NOT to write any East Asian female character]]. In contrast to the meekness of a "proper wife," Butterfly retains much of the panache of a geisha, such as when Yamadori comes a'courting, and she sasses him, then mocks him by impersonating an American judge ready to throw him in jail, before calmly calling for tea.
* YouNoTakeCandle: Played straight in the novel - see AsianSpeekeeEngrish, above. But where Long used Japanese character's broken English to make them seem inferior, Puccini completely averts the trope by having everyone speak perfect Italian. Furthermore, in terms of pure ''music,'' Butterfly is far and away the most eloquent and soulful of the cast.