During the last nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Western world became fascinated with all things Japanese. When Commodore Perry entered Tokyo Bay in 1853, he opened to view a society and culture which had been hidden for a hundred of years. Soon exhibitions of Japanese art opened throughout the United States and Europe and japonisme became the rage as chinoiserie had been a century before. Japanese motifs such as bridges, fans, cranes, butterflies, and bamboo were incorporated into Western art and furnishings. Literature also responded to the influx of new themes. Poets such as Whitman, Longfellow and Yeats incorporated Japanese images into their works. Stories set in Japanese locals were written and several of these merged into the one depicted in Puccini's Madama Butterfly.
In June of 1900 Puccini, already rich and famous, was in London for the first performance in England of his opera Tosca. Although he did not speak English, he went to see a performance of David Belasco's play Madame Butterfly, which had already been a success in New York. While he could not understand the words, the beauty of the Japanese scenery and atmosphere of the play (especially the long vigil which Butterfly keeps after the return of Pinkerton's ship) made a profound impression on him. Puccini immediately thought of this as the subject of his next opera, and he persuaded the librettists, Illica and Giacosa, it would be worthy of their collaboration. It took several months for Puccini to get the rights to the play, but early in 1901, work could start on Madama Butterfly.
The composer was always fascinated by the Orient (his last opera, Turandot, would be set in what is now Beijing, China). Since he was worried that the music would sound "too Italian", he sought advice from some Japanese acquaintances including a Japanese actress who was living in Milan. , and he studied Japanese folk music he acquired through Oyama Hisako, the wife of the Japanese Ambassador, who told him she knew a story like Butterfly's. From her he gained an idea of Japanese women's speech and movement patterns. He may have found some of his Japanese music themes in Messager's Madame Chrysanthème, and he even studied Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan. He did not try to use Japanese instruments but instead tried combinations of the usual orchestral instruments to get the desired effects. He tried to make Pinkerton sing like an "American", but in this he failed. He sounds very Italian.
There was confusion at first because Illica worked from Long's story and Puccini from Belasco's play, and Puccini demanded so many revisions that Illica complained to the publisher Ricordi. Eventually, the composition (1901-4) flowed fairly easily, even though it was interrupted for several months while Puccini recovered from a near-fatal automobile accident. finish the work. Since his leg did not permit him to sit at an upright piano, he bought a grand so he could finish the composition, and Giacosa agreed to help him.
Illica had originally set one act in the American Consulate but Puccini did not like this and made him change it. Originally the last two scenes were in one act which lasted one and one-half hours, and Puccini refused to have a curtain after Butterfly's vigil. Giacosa was convinced this would ruin the opera; they quarreled, and their association almost ended. (San Diego Opera's new version will take place in the Consulate, and the last two scenes will be played as Puccini originally wanted.) The rehearsals at La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy went well, and all were sure that Butterfly would be a great success. What a shock it was when the February 17, 1904 opening night was an unmitigated fiasco. People recognized fragments of melodies from Puccini's other works. Butterfly's costume made her look pregnant. The audience hooted and shouted and cackled with laughter, making so much noise that the music could not be heard. After the final curtain there was total silence and the singers did not take a curtain call. It seemed clear that Puccini's enemies had hired a claque for the demonstration, but this was never proven. He was so upset that he took the orchestral score from the theater with him so that the opera could not be performed again.
A new version was prepared with some cuts and added music for Pinkerton. On May 28, 1904, it received a triumphant "second premiere" before a distinguished audience in a small opera house in the nearby town of Brescia. This time it was a success and it remains one of the most popular operas in the repertoire. It could have remained very successful as it was but, with Puccini's permission, further alterations were made by Albert Carré, a French opera director, for the Paris production, softening the character of Pinkerton and removing many of the racial slurs. Although there were several other changes made in the years to come, this became the standard version. Most of the features Illica and Giacosa had preferred over Puccini became the standard, but they were not to know, they had both died.
Soon Madama Butterfly became a staple of the world's opera houses. It premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1907 with Geraldine Farrar as Cio-Cio-San and Enrico Caruso as Pinkerton.
Madama Butterfly was the composer's favorite opera. He wrote:
I still love Butterfly. I never listen with pleasure to any of my operas, with the exception perhaps of the last act of La bohème. But Butterfly, yes — everything! And I have the knowledge that I have written the most modern of my operas.
As a footnote, after Pearl Harbor, Madama Butterfly was not given again in America until almost 1949 or 1950.