Concertisti Classica

Program

Music by Giacomo Puccini

Japanese tragedy in three acts

Libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa

by John Luther Long and David Belasco

Madama Butterfly is the story of a deluded and naive love, paid dearly by the protagonist. However, it is not only the story of a tragic love, but also the denunciation of an unscrupulous and unscrupulous colonialism, in this case the lieutenant of the United States Navy, FB Pinkerton who, landed in Japan, buys a house and marries the fifteen-year-old Cio -cio-san (Butterfly) for only one hundred yen, about one euro today.

In June 1900 Puccini, in London, saw David Belasco's play Madame Butterfly. Although not knowing English, the Tuscan composer was fascinated by the story of the young Japanese woman who kills herself for love. As soon as he returned to Italy he asked Giulio Ricordi for authorization to draw an opera from that work, with the collaboration of Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa for the libretto.

The title was staged on February 17, 1904 at the Teatro alla Scala and was one of the most sensational failures in the history of opera, which was then reborn - in a second version - at the Teatro Grande in Brescia on May 28 of the same year. Since then, the sad love story of Butterfly, supported by her faithful servant Suzuki, opposed by the whole family, and cheered only by the smile of her son with Pinkerton, has remained in the repertoire of every theater in the world.