The sad tragedy in the opera Madame Butterfly. The story of how her love was betrayed. With a beautiful aria.
Contents.
Madame Butterfly falls in love.
Madame Butterfly is betrayed.
Listen and weep.
Love Betrayed.
Madame Butterfly falls in love.
In the world of Opera there are many sad stories, but none can cause tears to flow more than the story of Madame Butterfly.
Puccini's great opera tells the story of Butterfly, a young Japanese geisha girl, who falls in love with the American Lieutenant Pinkerton, in a story set in nineteenth century Japan.
The lieutenant marries Butterfly, in accordance with a Japanese law that allows marriages that can be dissolved on a monthly basis. It was a bit like renting yourself a spouse.
He has no real intention of staying long term with his Japanese bride. He even boasts to his friends about how great it will be when he returns to America, and marries a proper American lady.
Butterfly is so devoted to her American husband that she even gives up her Buddhist religion, and becomes a Christian for his sake.
For this she is cursed by all her relatives, and by the Japanese priests.
After a period together the American husband goes back to his own country. Butterfly is pregnant. He promises to return to her "when the red breasted robins are busy nesting." She takes that to mean that he will come back the following year. But the faithless bastard does not do that. He goes to America, and marries his proper American lady.
Butterfly, however, continues to believe that he will come back to her. She watches every day for a ship from America. The small amount of money that Pinkerton had left her is almost gone, and she and her little son are facing poverty.
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Madame Butterfly is betrayed.
Eventually the ship "The Abraham Lincoln"(Pinkerton's ship) returns.
Butterfly dresses up in her bridal dress to meet her "Husband". But there is a white lady with Pinkerton. The slug has not come back to reunite with his Japanese love, but only to offer to take her beloved son off her hands, and bring him to America, to raise him with his new bride.
The opera ends with Butterfly realising the situation, and killing herself.
The child is brought to America.
This sad story is sadly typical of the kind of thing that used to happen quite a lot. It was not unusual for men who were in foreign countries, or posted to the colonies, to have relationships with local girls. But the girls were rarely considered worthy of proper commitment. It is a sort of racism that, fortunately, is less common now.
The most famous aria from Madame Butterfly is the beautiful "Un bel Di Vedremo", where Butterfly looks forward to the return of her husband, not realising that he has betrayed her.
It is difficult to listen to it without shedding tears.
That is great art for you.
