History YMMV / MadameButterfly

** Highlights of the score include Butterfly's breathtakingly ethereal entrance [[https://youtu.be/dRsK2R1zzQk?t=32s "Ancora un passo or via"]], the love duet [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIC__27ycwg "Viene la sera"]], Butterfly's main and most famous aria [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-r2vu4t9-g "Un bel di vedremo"]], and the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f1k14GQmNE "Humming Chorus"]], which is so tender and touching that it inspired another great song - "[[Theatre/LesMiserables Bring Him Home.]]" (The latter is [[HilariousInHindsight rather amusing]] when one considers that Puccini considered adapting Les Miserables at one point as an opera...and that the next project for the creators of Theatre/LesMiserables was [[Theatre/MissSaigon an update of ''Madame Butterfly''!]]

** Highlights of the score include Butterfly's breathtakingly ethereal entrance [[https://youtu.be/dRsK2R1zzQk?t=32s "Ancora un passo or via"]], the love duet [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIC__27ycwg "Viene la sera"]], Butterfly's main and most famous aria [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-r2vu4t9-g "Un bel di vedremo"]], and the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f1k14GQmNE "Humming Chorus"]], which is so tender and touching that it inspired another great song - "[[Theatre/LesMiserables Bring Him Home.]]" (The latter is rather amusing when one considers that Puccini considered adapting Les Miserables at one point as an opera...and that the next project for the creators of Theatre/LesMiserables was [[Theatre/MissSaigon an update of ''Madame Butterfly''!]]

** Going on from that...when Pinkerton dismisses Sharpless' concerns that Butterfly truly loves him and believes this marriage is the real deal, not the temporary affair it actually is, is it merely because he's an insensitive Jerkass who's too self-centered to comprehend the depth of anyone else's feelings, or because he knows that (in the world of this story at least) these temporary marriages are a common practice among Japanese girls in dire financial straits and that the girls' putting on an act of devotion is all part of the game? After all, in Pierre Loti's ''Madame Chrysanthemum'', the ancestor of the Butterfly story, the French sailor turned back for a moment after he left to find Chrysanthemum merrily counting the coins he'd left her and planning for her next "husband". The original short story by John Luther Long began with Pinkerton's comrade-in-arms warning him against losing his heart to one of these temporary brides, citing his brother who'd killed himself when a geisha he loved broke his heart in what turned out to be a gender-flip of the opera's story. And the Belasco stage play (which basically only covers what would be Acts II and III of the opera) has Pinkerton telling Sharpless that he was in love with Butterfly for several weeks after he sailed, but that he kept himself from going back by reminding himself that her devotion was probably all part of the game and that, like Madame Chrysanthemum, she'd have counted his money and moved on by now. Pinkerton may have thought Sharpless was being naive in thinking Butterfly believed in the marriage and wasn't familiar with the kind of act the girls would put on...as one book on opera plots put it, he had no way of knowing he'd ended up with the one geisha who watched every ship that came into the harbor. If one takes this idea into account, it's possible to cut him some slack at least.

** Prince Yamadori has been played as everything from a bumbling idiot and figure of ridicule to a sincere man who seems to have genuine feelings for Butterfly. The 1995 Frederic Mitterand film portrays him as a dignified, rather attractive man of military bearing. The latter, more positive interpretation may have more support in the source material...in both the original John Luther Long short story and the David Belasco stage play adaptation (which was what inspired Puccini to create the opera), Yamadori is a Westernized man who has a home in New York City, carries himself with dignity and intelligence, and is willing to take in Butterfly's son and raise him as his own if she marries him. That could be considered a large part of the tragedy...that Butterfly could have been quite happy with Yamadori, had she only seen Pinkerton for what he was and been willing to move on.

** Prince Yamadori has been played as everything from a bumbling idiot and figure of ridicule to a sincere man who seems to have genuine feelings for Butterfly. The 1995 Frederic Mitterand film portrays him as a dignified, rather attractive man of military bearing. The latter, more positive interpretation may have more support in the source material...in both the original John Luther Long short story and the David Belasco stage play adaptation (which was what inspired Puccini to create the opera), Yamadori is a Westernized man who has a home in New York City, carries himself with dignity and intelligence, and is willing to take in Butterfly's son if she will marry him and raise him as his own. That could be considered a large part of the tragedy...that Butterfly could have been quite happy with Yamadori, had she only seen Pinkerton for what he was and been willing to move on.

*

** Highlights of the score include Butterfly's breathtakingly ethereal entrance [[https://youtu.be/dRsK2R1zzQk?t=32s "Ancora un passo or via"]], the love duet [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIC__27ycwg "Viene la sera"]], Butterfly's main and most famous aria [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-r2vu4t9-g "Un bel di vedremo"]], and the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f1k14GQmNE "Humming Chorus"]], which is so tender and touching that it inspired another great song - "[[Theatre/LesMiserables Bring Him Home.]]"

* FridgeHorror: Apparently, these temporary marriages between American sailors and impoverished Japanese girls are a common practice...the girls get money for themselves and their families by becoming term-brides. In short, it's glorified prostitution masquerading as respectable marriage. Butterfly's family seems fine with her temporarily marrying an American, only disowning her when they find out she takes it seriously enough to renounce Shintoism and convert to Christianity. So it seems that they, along with Pinkerton, know the score about the nature of the "marriage." The only one who's not in on the joke is Butterfly herself. Which means that none of her family bothered to sit this fifteen-year-old girl down and explain exactly what she was getting into. In other words, this girl is a victim of trafficking...and doesn't even know she's being trafficked.

** Going on from that...when Pinkerton dismisses Sharpless' concerns that Butterfly truly loves him and believes this marriage is the real deal, not the temporary affair it actually is, is it merely because he's an insensitive jerk who's too self-centered to comprehend the depth of anyone else's feelings, or because he knows that (in the world of this story at least) these temporary marriages are a common practice among Japanese girls in dire financial straits and that the girls' putting on an act of devotion is all part of the game? After all, in Pierre Loti's ''Madame Chrysanthemum'', the ancestor of the Butterfly story, the French sailor turned back for a moment after he left to find Chrysanthemum merrily counting the coins he'd left her and planning for her next "husband". The original short story by John Luther Long began with Pinkerton's comrade-in-arms warning him against losing his heart to one of these temporary brides, citing his brother who'd killed himself when a geisha he loved broke his heart in what turned out to be a gender-flip of the opera's story. And the Belasco stage play (which basically only covers what would be Acts II and III of the opera) has Pinkerton telling Sharpless that he was in love with Butterfly for several weeks after he sailed, but that he kept himself from going back by reminding himself that her devotion was probably all part of the game and that, like Madame Chrysanthemum, she'd have counted his money and moved on by now. Pinkerton may have thought Sharpless was being naive in thinking Butterfly believed in the marriage and wasn't familiar with the kind of act the girls would put on...as one book on opera plots put it, he had no way of knowing he'd ended up with the one geisha who watched every ship that came into the harbor.

* FridgeHorror: Apparently, these temporary marriages between American sailors and impoverished Japanese girls are a common practice...the girls get money for themselves and their families by becoming term-brides. In short, it's glorified prostitution masquerading as respectable marriage. Butterfly's family seems fine with her temporarily marrying an American, only disowning her when they find out she takes it seriously enough to renounce Shintoism and convert to Christianity. So it seems that they, along with Pinkerton, know the score about the nature of the "marriage." The only one who doesn't know the score is Butterfly herself. Which means that none of her family bothered to sit this fifteen-year-old girl down and explain what she was getting into. In other words, this girl is a victim of trafficking...and doesn't even know she's being trafficked.