Madama Butterfly
The opera Cio-Cio-san (Madama Butterfly) is based on the short story American writer John L. Long, revised by D. Belasco into a drama. Having seen the play during his stay in London, Puccini was moved by its lifelike veracity. At his suggestion, librettists L. Illik (1859-1919) and D. Giacosa (1847-1906) wrote an opera libretto based on the drama. Music was soon created. At the first performance, which took place on February 17, 1904 in Milan, the opera, however, failed and was withdrawn from the repertoire. The audience did not understand its content and was outraged by the excessive length of the second act. Puccini shortened some numbers, divided the second act into two independent acts. Performed with these minor changes three months later, the opera was a triumphant success and quickly gained a strong reputation as one of the most popular contemporary operas.
The appeal to the plot from the life of distant Japan corresponded to the common European art late XIX and the beginning of the 20th century, the attraction to the exotic, the desire of artists to enrich their palette with new colors. But Puccini did not set himself the special task of reproducing the national Japanese flavor in music. The main thing for him was the image of a touching human drama. In its embodiment, the composer managed not only to preserve, but also to deepen the content of the literary source. 
The lieutenant of the American fleet Pinkerton was carried away by a young Japanese woman Cio-Cio-san, nicknamed "Butterfly" (in English - a butterfly) and decided to marry her. Goro, a professional Japanese matchmaker, shows him a house with a garden, rented for future spouses. Consul Sharpless warns his friend against a rash step in vain. The lieutenant does not listen to persuasion: "Pick flowers wherever possible" - such is his life philosophy. And Cio-Cio-san ardently loves her future husband. For his sake, she is ready to accept Christianity and break with her family. In the presence of the imperial commissioner, the marriage ceremony begins. She is interrupted by the angry voice of Bonza, Cio-Cio-san's uncle, who curses his niece. Abandoned by loved ones, the girl cries bitterly; Pinkerton consoles her.
Three years have passed since then. Pinkerton left shortly after the wedding, Cio-Cio-san eagerly awaits his return. Abandoned by her husband, abandoned by her relatives, she lives with a maid and a young son, whose existence Pinkerton does not even suspect. Cio-Cio-san is in need, but hope does not leave her. Goro and Sharpless arrive, having received a letter from Pinkerton asking him to prepare Cio-Cio-san for the hard news: he has married an American. However, Sharpless fails to finish reading the letter. Hearing that her husband is healthy and should soon arrive in Nagasaki, Cio-Cio-san interrupts him with a joyful exclamation. Prince Yamadori appears, for whom Goro is strenuously wooing Cio-Cio-san. Having received a polite refusal, he is forced to retire. Sharpless advises her to accept Yamadori's offer; he hints that Pinkerton may not return, but the young woman's faith is unshakable. A cannon shot is heard - this is an American ship entering the port, on which Pinkerton should arrive. In joyful excitement, Cio-Cio-san decorates the house with flowers and, waiting for her husband, peers into the lights of the approaching ship.
The night passed, but Cio-Cio-san waited in vain. Tired, she breaks away from the window and, rocking the child, falls asleep. There is a knock on the door. The overjoyed maid sees Pinkerton, accompanied by Sharpless, but with them an unfamiliar lady. Sharpless reveals the truth to Suzuki: it is Pinkerton's wife, Kat. Upon learning that he had a son, Pinkerton came to pick him up. Hearing voices, Cio-Cio-san runs out of his room. Finally she understood what had happened. Shocked to the core, Cio-Cio-san listens to the will of the child's father. She agrees to give the boy away, but cannot survive the collapse of all her hopes. Gently saying goodbye to his son, Cio-Cio-san kills himself with a dagger.
The story of Madama Butterfly, based on Puccini opera of the same name, has its roots in a rather deep past. In 1816, the Italian traveler Carletti wrote that as soon as foreign sailors landed on the Japanese coast, "the intermediaries and pimps who controlled all these processes called their wards and asked the sailors if they would like to rent, buy - or somehow then in another way to acquire a woman - for the time that they spend in the harbor "; then a contract was concluded with an intermediary or the girl's family. A similar practice continued with Dutch merchants: for two hundred and fifty years, they, as the only foreigners in Japan at that time, could live on the tiny artificial island of Deijma in the harbor of Nagasaki, using the services of the above-described "service". When in 1885 to the Country rising sun the French navigator and writer Pierre Loti arrived, this tradition has not changed at all - as evidenced by his detailed and quite popular novel at the time, which told about his six-week "marriage" with a certain "Madame Chrysanthemum".
Thus, it is not surprising that when American Methodist missionaries Irvine and Jenny Correll arrived in Japan in 1892, it was this practice that first attracted their attention.
At first they were in no hurry to tell stories on this subject; only much later, Jenny told one incident - which, according to her, she was told by the owner of a local shop somewhere in 1895, and the story itself happened more than twenty years earlier.
In 1897, Jenny went on vacation to America, where she stayed for some time in Philadelphia with her brother John Luther Long. The latter was a lawyer, however - considering himself a person not without abilities, he spent a lot of time literary works. Exactly one year after meeting his sister, he published in the Century Illustrated Magazine a short story called Madama Butterfly, based on real story from Nagasaki, told to him by his sister.
Pretty soon, Long's story awakened the imagination of the playwright David Belasco - and turned into a play that Puccini saw in London in the summer of 1900; the composer was very impressed with the play "Madama Butterfly" and decided to write an opera on the same plot.
The uncomplicated story and the few facts that Jenny Correll learned in Nagasaki were professionally processed and structured by Long and Belasco into a novel and a dynamic one-act play - of course, by adding numerous "authentic" Japanese details (which, in turn, were largely borrowed from Loti's novel "Madame Chrysanthemum" The prototypes of such characters as Pinkerton, Goro and Suzuki clearly "came" from the said novel); however, in Long's story there are numerous real facts, for a long time unknown to the world told to him by his sister.
She told her brother the following. Somewhere in the 1870s, three Scots brothers, Thomas, Alex and Alfred Glover, lived in Nagasaki. One of them (possibly Alex - although it is impossible to say for sure, of course) started romantic relationship with a Japanese woman named Kaga Maki, who entertained the public at the local teahouse under the name Cho-san, or Miss Butterfly. The fact that such relations with a foreigner at that time were perceived by others as a "temporary" marriage, we have already mentioned; such a union usually cost one hundred yen or twenty Mexican dollars, and the "marriage" could be easily terminated at the will of the "husband" at any time.
During an affair with a Scot, Kaga Maki became pregnant, and on December 8, 1870, she gave birth to a son, naming him Shinsaburo. The father soon left the woman and the child, leaving Japan. After some time, the father's brother (Thomas) and the Japanese Avaya Tsuru, with whom he lived in a civil marriage, took the child from Kaga Maki; women of her profession were not allowed to raise children, and by court order, the child was given to Thomas and Avaya Tsuru - he became a family member in the house of his adoptive parents.
The name of the child was changed to Tomisaburo (in Everyday life calling him simply Tom); he later became known as Tom Glover.
While Jenny Correll was living in Nagasaki, Tom Glover, having completed his studies at the universities of Japan and America, returned to hometown, where he settled, officially registering a new Japanese family Guraba (this is the Japanese surname Glover).
Those who knew that Tom Glover was the son of Butterfly remained silent, although John Luther Long privately acknowledged him. In the early 1930s, Jenny Correll and the Japanese soprano Miura Tamaki (who had sung the Butterfly many times and had privately discussed the whole story with Long a few years earlier) were the only ones who could confirm this fact. In 1931, Tom Glover confirmed in an interview that his mother was Madama Butterfly; research accounts Japanese registration services have also confirmed this.
What happened to real people who served as the prototypes for this drama? After her child was given away to another family, Kaga Maki (Miss Cho-Cho-san) married a Japanese man and went with him to another city. After some time they divorced and she returned to Nagasaki, where she died in 1906.
Her son Tom Glover ("Dolore" in the opera) lived in Nagasaki, where he married a woman named Nakano Waka, the daughter of an English merchant; they had no children. Glover lost his wife during World War II.
The war years took a heavy toll on him: in August 1945, after the surrender of Japan, after the nightmare of the American atomic bombing Nagasaki, he committed suicide.
Thus the events real life, which formed the basis of Puccini's heartbreaking drama, turned out to be almost more tragic than the opera itself. There is no evidence that Kaga Maki - the real Butterfly - ever managed to see Tomisaburo again. Her son, whose name (Dolore, or Sorrow) in the opera was to one day change to Gioia (Joy), was haunted by misfortunes until his tragic death.
After seeing a production of Belasco's play in London in June 1900, Puccini immediately sent the playwright a request for rights. However, for one reason or another, the official matters were settled only by September of the following year. In the meantime, the composer had already sent a copy of Long's story to Luigi Illique, who sketched out a sketch of a two-act libretto. The first (originally planned as a Prologue) was entirely based on Long's story and showed the wedding of Pinkerton and Cho-Cho-san (whom her friends called Butterfly); the second act was based on the events of Belasco's play and was divided into three scenes, where the first and third took place in the Butterfly house, and the second - in the American consulate.
When Giuseppe Giacosa began to clothe the libretto in poetic form, the Prologue developed into the First Act, and the first scene of the second part grew into the Second Act. Illika intended to leave the ending in line with Long's book (where Butterfly fails to commit suicide: her baby suddenly runs in and Suzuki bandages her wounds) - but the final decision was made in favor of Belasco's gruesome ending.
The libretto remained unfinished until November 1902 - when Puccini, despite Giacosa's passionate protests, decided to omit the scene in the American consulate, and with it the contrast between the atmosphere and culture of Japan and the West, which Illika so desired. Instead, the two remaining scenes were merged into one act lasting an hour and a half.
Giacosa considered this so incredibly stupid that he insisted on printing the missing text in the libretto; however, Ricordi disagreed.
Work on the essay was interrupted in February 1903: the avid motorist Puccini had an accident and was seriously injured: his right leg was broken, which began to grow together incorrectly, and it had to be artificially broken again; he recovered for a long time.
The score was finished in December, and at the same time - the premiere was scheduled for February next year with an excellent cast: Rosina Storchio (Butterfly), Giovanni Zenatello (Pinkerton) and Giuseppe de Luca - Sharpless; conductor - Cleophonte Campanini.
Despite the fact that both the singers and the orchestra showed a lot of enthusiasm in preparing the opera, the premiere was a nightmare; Puccini was accused of self-repetition and imitation of other composers. The composer immediately withdrew the opera; quite confident in the merits of "Butterfly", he nevertheless made some changes to the score - before allowing it to be performed elsewhere. Puccini omitted some of the details regarding the Butterfly's relationship in Act I, split the long Act II into two parts with an intermission, and added Pinkerton's arietta "Addio, fiorito asil".
The second performance took place on May 28 of the same year at the Teatro Grande in Brescia; the composition of the soloists remained the same, with the exception of Rosina Storchio - the part of Butterfly was performed by Salomea Krushelnitskaya. This time the opera was a triumphant success.
Nevertheless, Puccini continued to work on the score - mainly the changes concerned the First Act. The composer's revisions ended with the Paris premiere given at the Opéra-Comique on December 28, 1906 - it was these performances that formed the basis of the final printed version of the score.
On the advice of Albert Carré, theater director and prima donna's husband, Puccini softened Pinkerton's character, weeding out his more harsh xenophobic statements, and also abandoned the confrontation between Butterfly and Kate - the latter, thus, gained more attractive features. Be that as it may, at the beginning of this year, Ricordi had already published a piano score, in which one can find many of the original passages, subsequently discarded by the composer. Three of them - all from the First Act - were restored for performances at Milan's Carcano theater shortly after the First World War, with Puccini's own approval. Be that as it may, they were not reproduced in printed form again.
In critical musical articles and descriptions of the idea and plot of Giacomo Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly, it is most often written in an intricately streamlined way, for example, like this: "the tragedy of a naive Japanese woman is marked by deceit, sadism, predatory cruelty under the guise of civilization, in which it is not easy to recognize barbarism, disguised under culture."
It can be put more simply, calling a spade a spade.
The opera takes place in Nagasaki somewhere around the 1900s, but even then american world lived by the principle double standards, which is convincingly proved by the actions of the protagonist of Pinkerton's opera.
Franklin Benjamin Pinkerton, lieutenant of the American Navy, courteous don Juan, prudent insolent, unprincipled seducer, convincing deceiver, cynic - one of those about whom they say - "all men" are "his ...".
His chosen one (she is also a victim) Cio-Cio-San is a fifteen-year-old geisha, nicknamed Butterfly (butterfly). There is a version that the prototype of Chio-chio-san was a geisha from the samurai family named Yamamura Tsuru, who wore a kimono with butterfly embroidery, for which she received the nickname.
Butterfly-Cio-Cio-san did not flutter like a butterfly through life, she (we learn from the 1st act) lived hard, with her mother, who could barely make ends meet ("Her poverty is so terrible"). The girl tells Pinkerton that her father committed suicide on the orders of the mikado, and always carries a dagger in memory of him.
As Anton Pavlovich Chekhov once said: "If at the beginning of the play there is a gun hanging on the wall, then by the end of the play it should fire." The Butterfly Dagger is the bell that will ring at the end of the opera!
The young and naive Cio-Cio-san, to her misfortune, met the beautiful seducer Pinkerton and fell in love with him, like Juliet, to death. That's where the saying is right that a woman loves with her ears, and Pinkerton whispered into the girl's ears, it seems, a lot of sweet words. It was not for nothing that Puccini assigned his hero the voice of a tenor - the voice of all opera heroes-lovers. Besides, Pinkerton was in a beautiful sea uniform... how not to fall in love!
The plot is banal, there are many such stories, but the music of Giacomo Puccini made an ordinary story about love musical masterpiece for all time.
To be honest, Pinkerton does not arouse the slightest sympathy in me, although the main characters should be loved or at least sympathetic to their torment (as, for example, to Iago in Othello). I put myself in the place of the girl Chio-chio-san and I understand that she had practically no way out - it is difficult to resist the exciting speeches (beautiful and melodious arias) of an experienced womanizer and it is impossible not to fall in love with this! And adult women make mistakes, and Cio-chio-san was inexperienced in matters of love.
The immoral Pinkerton did not just seduce the poor girl, but performed a love ritual, lulling her natural girlish caution with skillful tactics. He, like a carnivorous predator, walked in circles around the intended victim, gradually getting close to her in order to swallow completely. For complete pleasure and satisfaction from his passion, Pinkerton even married Butterfly, which completely conquered the girl. If there were echoes of resistance in it (objections of relatives), then the wedding completely destroyed them.
Pinkerton knew that a marriage contracted in Japan was invalidated by American law. I knew, but I still got married. It turns out that Pinkerton is also a scoundrel. But one should not think that he was pretending, confessing his love to Cio-chio-san, he also loved, but in his own way. Love-passion does not touch the heart.
Pinkerton, with the help of the broker Goro, rents a separate house to live in it with his young wife. Before the wedding, he talks with Consul Sharpless and reveals to him his views on the relationship to love (arioso "Amore o grillo" (Caprice or passion), assuring him how good it is to pick flowers of pleasure wherever the opportunity presents itself; on his attitude to life (duet " Dovunque al mondo lo yankee vagabondo" (The Yankee Wanderer), in which he confides about how good it is to be a vagrant Yankee, free from all obligations.
We do not know how Pinkerton and Chio-chio-san met, the first act begins already with preparations for the wedding. Everything is real! What a wonderful tie! The action in novels usually ends with a wedding, but here it begins.
The whole opera is a tragedy, and although the wonderful music in the first act does not portend a deadly denouement in the last act, in the atmosphere of the ongoing fun, the approach of the irreparable is felt. Very much strong feelings Cio-chio-san and Pinkerton experience each other (she loves truly and forever, he passionately and for a while), and such feelings on stage are harbingers of trouble.
How I would like to warn the girl against a rash step, but this is impossible. First, I'm in auditorium, and she is on stage, secondly and most importantly, it is impossible not to believe the one who passionately confesses his love and whom you passionately love yourself?
At the age of 15, feelings are always exalted, and the chosen one is always ideal! Butterfly for the sake of her beloved is ready for anything - even to abandon the Japanese religion and become, like him, a Christian, in the name of love, she goes even against the will of her relatives.
Uncle Chio-chio-san and her mother make one last attempt to dissuade her from the wedding (and I am on their side) and even want to take them away, but Pinkerton decisively kicks them out - no one should stand in his way when the goal is about come true! Left alone, the young couple declares their love in the beautiful, gentle duet "Viene la sera" (Evening).
It is known that when the first performance of the opera in 1904 "failed", Puccini remade the score and three months later revealed it to the world again. New edition The audience liked the opera, she applauded the aforementioned duet and demanded it for an encore.
In the second act, we learn that Madame Pinkerton-Chio-Chio-san Butterfly had a son, whom the young mother named Dolore, which means "Suffering". She explains that this name is only for a while, while the baby does not have a father, and when the father appears, the boy will be called Gioia, which means "Happiness".
The baby named "Suffering" is already three years old, and we understand that Pinkerton has been absent for these three years (having achieved his goal, he returned to America). The opera does not mention the moment of departure, the plot puts the viewer in front of the fact that there is no naval lieutenant, but only Butterfly, Suzuki's maid and a quiet, silent boy with the sad name "Suffering" - the fruit of a short, but ardent love.
But Butterfly has not forgotten. She continued to wait for her beloved husband and assured Suzuki that he would definitely return. Suzuki prays japanese god about the happiness of the hostess and does not believe in the return of Pinkerton: he has been absent for a very long time and does not give news of himself.
Butterfly scolds the maid for disbelief, but comforts her and himself with dreams of a happy future, when he, she and little Happiness will be together! Love gives Cio-Cio-san the strength to wait and hope.
It is here that the most beautiful aria "Un bel di, vedremo" (Desired on a clear day) sounds, and together with Butterfly we indulge in her rainbow dreams. And only when, at the end of the aria, her voice rises to a mournful height, and the restrained mental anguish spills out, it becomes clear that Butterfly is deceiving herself. She understands that Pinkerton abandoned her, but, as they say, hope dies last. Hope caught on the edge of Butterfly's heart and helps her live.
The aria "Un bel di, vedremo" is the most sentimental in the opera. It has been performed and performed by many opera artists in productions and in concerts, and every time it sounds amazing. Of the many magnificent voices performing this aria, I would like to mention Maria Callas and Galina Vishnevskaya.
Aria Butterfly, performed by the hoarse, as if cracked voice of Maria Callas, turns my soul upside down and brings me to the highest point of emotions - with tears, with a beating heart and sharp pity for Cio-Cio-San and for all the deceived girls. And to Maria Callas too...
Maria Callas - aria "Un bel di, vedremo" (Desired on a clear day)
I sympathize with Butterfly with all my heart, I scold Pinkerton, I pity the suffering boy, I want to believe that Pinkerton has changed, and Butterfly and her son will be happy! But no, scoundrels don't change.
What is a geisha in Pinkerton's terms? This is a woman entertaining guests, and no matter how well-versed she is in literature and art, in Japanese customs and traditions, in ceremonies and in the art of tea drinking, she is just a servant, which means she is a second-class person, that is, "not real "a woman, and therefore it is also possible to treat her not really. The real one is Kat, Pinkerton's American wife, whose marriage is approved by American law!
That's why Pinkerton has no remorse and guilt towards Butterfly. He calmly returns to Japan, considering what happened three years ago as an ordinary love affair.
This is the real thing with Butterfly.
Here I would like to say a little about musical basis operas. The music of Giacomo Puccini, figuratively speaking, is like a powerful river with waterfalls, overflows, with a gentle murmur and a stormy roar, sometimes turning into a roar of a trumpet... his suffering, rejoice in his joy, understand him from the inside in order to be able to tell about it in just 7 notes! Opera masterpiece! It is even hard to believe that the premiere of "Madama Butterfly" in 1904 failed miserably, indeed, everything ingenious is not accepted immediately!
The closer to the end, the more sensitive the music affects, the stronger the nervous tension and the expectation of a tragic denouement ...
Pinkerton appears with his wife Kat. They come to take little Suffering to America to raise him as Happiness. The American consul Sharpless told them about the boy. I am sure that Sharpless immediately informed Pinkerton about the newborn child, but he did not consider it necessary to react, and the birth of a son did not change his way of life - living without obligations is easy and simple! And if he returned now to Nagasaki, then I think only at the insistence of Kat, who somehow found out about the child. She turned out to be a conscientious woman, unlike her husband.
Pinkerton performs the arioso "Addio, fiorito asil" (Farewell, my peaceful shelter) - this is how he says goodbye to the house in which he and Butterfly were a short time happy. Arioso is beautiful, Pinkerton performs it with a sense of sadness and even with a certain amount of pathos. It's only a pity that his feeling is directed to a soulless structure, and not to a living and suffering Butterfly.
Butterfly learns that it was not love for her that brought Pinkerton back to Nagasaki, a piece of hope was cut short, and the girl realizes that her life is over - without a husband, without a child, without reciprocal love, life is meaningless. Butterfly sings the aria "And I, I'm going far." He sings confidently, like a man who has made a final decision.
One can argue why Butterfly gave her son away, she could have kept him and be a happy mother, but she is Japanese and remembers unshakable Japanese concepts, one of which is: the will of the father is sacred! The father came for his son and, therefore, is obliged to receive him.
The unfortunate young woman (only 18 years old!) allows Kat to take her son and commits suicide. It was then that the dagger "shot"! Belatedly, Pinkerton rushes in, yelling "Butterfly, Butterfly," and falls to his knees in front of her body. Repented? O-o-o, hardly. I really want to believe that I repented, but I do not believe it.
The last orchestral chord sounds like a slap in the face of human meanness.
Separately, I want to say a few words about the illustration (above) Posters for the opera. There are many moments in the opera that can be put on a poster as an idea and meaning, but in this case the artist depicted the essence of the plot, which goes beyond the scope of the opera and is directed to the future. The poster shows Butterfly on her knees and already pierced by a dagger. IN last impulse life, she stretches her arms to her son. A meek, obedient baby with a bandage over his eyes, so childishly clumsy quietly plays with a toy ... The artist depicted him in a pose that shrinks and pinches any maternal heart, mine is so simply torn from pity!
The contrast between the impulse of Butterfly and the serenity of the baby is amazing. The artist prophetically expressed the future of the boy - he will forever remain with the name "Suffering" and never "Happiness". Because without a mother, because with a stepmother, because without the love of a father. In addition, he, born Japanese, and in democratic America (according to Goro) will be powerless.
P.S.
Aria Cio-Cio-san performed by Galina Vishnevskaya.
Her Butterfly of Galina is outwardly restrained and imperturbable in Japanese style, childishly cheerful and maternally tender. It was Galina Pavlovna who, with her interpretation, revealed to me the feminine essence of Butterfly, showed her as a strong, whole, decisive, but very emotionally vulnerable and vulnerable woman.
Since the beginning of the last century, productions of Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly have been successfully staged on the stages of all theaters in the world. wonderful music, inspired by the arias of the performers, and most importantly, a touching story does not leave the audience indifferent, tears appear in the eyes of many women in the audience.
Temporary marriages were common in Japan. These were unions between foreign citizens forced to long time live in this country, and Japanese women. The girl given as a wife was called musume.
In the plot of the production, the American officer Pinkerton acquires a temporary wife, who is only fifteen years old. She has beautiful name Cio-Cio-San. The girl sincerely became attached and fell in love with her master. She even changed her faith for him, which pushed her family and friends away from her.
After the officer left for her homeland, the young Japanese woman was left pregnant with no hope of anyone's help. Love and hope for the return of her beloved helped her in the fight against difficulties.
Pinkerton returned three years later. But not to her, but only for her son. He was married. Cio-Cio-San no longer wants to live, she kills herself. The story created by the writers and the composer is tragic.
Temporary marriages in Japan were a frequent occurrence in the second half of the century before last, when sailors wintered in Nagasaki Russian fleet. Officers gladly used the opportunity to have temporary wives. It was much more convenient and safer than using the services of temporary women.
Payment under the contract was monthly at 10 - 15 dollars, the term could be extended. At any time, it was possible to break off the relationship without any further obligations. The temporary wife needed to provide living conditions, including the payment of servants.
The contingent for wives were young ladies, who were most often offered by their parents. The poor Japanese were forced to trade their daughters so that they could later marry Japanese men, which was impossible without a dowry. Girls at such a young age could not earn money in any other way.
Musume were considered legitimate temporary wives. It didn't apply to prostitution. They weren't geishas either. The temporary wife without fail provided everything intimate services but only to her man. She became an experienced woman, but she did not become corrupted, serving numerous clients, as happens with a prostitute.
Temporary life with one foreign man did not prevent the girl from being a good wife to a Japanese in the future. young creation from poor family during the time spent next to a man, most often educated and educated, gained experience in family life and increased my intelligence.
Not only Russian naval officers resorted to the services of musume. It is known that the great princes of the Romanov dynasty also liked to buy young Japanese women for themselves.
In Nagasaki, merchant and military ships from different countries. There were enough foreigners who wanted to get a wife for a while. French writer Pierre Loti traveled extensively and in 1885 lived in Japan for two months. He bought himself a temporary wife, O-kiku-san, about whom he then wrote an interesting story.
The events described in Loti's Madame Chrysanthemum, Long's novella and Puccini's opera take place in Nagasaki (Japan's largest port city) at about the same time, i.e. at the end of the last century.
For the novel, Long used a story that his sister told him. Sarah Jane was acquainted with the Scot Thomas Glover, who had a temporary wife in Nagasaki. Her name was Kaga Maki, but she had a pseudonym for performing at Cho-san's teahouse. Translated from Japanese language this name means butterfly, in English butterfly (butterfly).
D. Belasco used the material of Long's short story to write the play "Geisha", which produced such a strong effect on Puccini that he wrote the world-famous opera "Madama Butterfly". She first saw the light in 1904 in Milan.
Now this story is included in the golden fund of opera and theater classics around the world.
Its name is symbolic: the age of the “moth girl” (this is how the English Butterfly is translated) is short-lived, happiness is fleeting.
The main character, still a very young Japanese geisha, Cio-Cio-san, was temporarily bought by an American Navy lieutenant, Pinkerton, who left her very soon. The deal has the appearance of marriage, but the marriage contract concluded by an American in Japan "for 999 years" is not valid in America.
Puccini was very fond of his "Japanese tragedy", considering it one of his best achievements. The more dramatic for him was the failure of the premiere of "Madama Butterfly" (Milan, theater "La Scala", February 17, 1904), which repeated fate. Three months later, a new, three-part version of the opera was staged, this time in Bolshoi Theater Brescia. Her triumphant success fully rewarded the composer for his failure at La Scala.
The action takes place in Nagasaki at the very beginning of the 20th century, so the plot made it possible to show pictures of Japanese life. In this regard, the composer's interest in Eastern culture responded to general artistic trends turn of XIX- XX centuries, when the passion for non-European exoticism captured the whole of Europe.
Puccini became the first Western European composer to discover the world of Japan in music. Like , he did not strive for ethnographic authenticity, but tried to convey in music his artistic sense of Japan. How convincing Puccini's Japan is can be judged by the enormous popularity that Madama Butterfly enjoys among the Japanese themselves. But still main task the composer was not a stylization Japanese culture, and the disclosure of the human drama - the tragedy of a young woman from whom everything is taken away, even her own son (having learned that he has a child, Pinkerton arrived with his American wife to take him with him).
Of all Puccini's operas, Madama Butterfly is perhaps the most deserving of the title of lyrical-psychological drama. The image of the fragile Cio-Cio-san has become the richest, most deeply developed female character in creative heritage composer. Throughout the opera, the heroine does not leave the stage; it is her fate that is placed at the center of the intersection of all conflict situations. This is the only active face of the drama, which, in fact, has no antagonists, because, unlike in Madama Butterfly, there is no violent struggle of opposing forces. The entire "civilized world" surrounding Cio-Cio-san is hostile.
By switching the main conflict of the composition from the everyday plane to the ethical, moral, Puccini elevates the melo-drama to tragedy. The main thing that Cio-Cio-san has to fight with throughout the opera is the disbelief of others. Violating the customs of her country, renouncing the faith of her ancestors and adopting Christianity, she broke ties with the past. Abandoned by her family, cursed by Bonza (a Japanese priest), she indignantly rejects the courtship of the wealthy Prince Yamadori: Madame Butterfly remains faithful to her husband. She is supported only by an unshakable faith in her ideal, which is why the betrayal of a loved one, the death of an ideal does not leave her a chance for life. She agrees to give the boy away ("The Father's will is sacred"), but after saying goodbye to her son, she kills herself with a blow from her father's dagger.
All the main psychological climaxes of the opera are connected with the image of Cio-Cio-san:
- V I action- the moment of her first appearance with her friends and a duet with Pinkerton, the only one love scene operas;
- V first scene of act II- two arias. The first - “Desired on a clear day” (Ges-dur) - is perhaps Puccini's best female aria. This is a mono-scene that Cio-Cio-san plays in front of Suzuki, imitating the episode of Pinkerton's return. The second aria, addressed to the son, forms a contrast with the first at a distance. It is distinguished by an extremely gloomy coloration (the tonality is already indicative - as-moll) and a pronounced oriental flavor. Cio-Cio-san again introduced herself as a geisha, forced to sing and dance;
- in the final scene second painting Act II - Butterfly's farewell to her son, full of dramatic expression.
To these lyrical heights the entire inner movement of music is directed. Love - expectation - the collapse of illusions - death - these are the main phases of the psychological drama of the heroine.
Other characters, including Pinkerton, play, in essence, an auxiliary role. This most important feature of "Madama Butterfly" brings it closer to the "drama of one hero", which was developed in the 20th century.
The complex development of the psychological line, the dynamics of the "underwater" action in "Madama Butterfly" compensates for the relative static nature of the external stage dramaturgy. The genre sphere is presented mainly in act I (the episode of the inspection of the house and the introduction of the servants, the appearance of the consul, the ensemble of relatives Cio-Cio-san). With a sharp dissonance in the peaceful atmosphere of wedding congratulations, the appearance of Bonza suddenly wedges in, cursing Butterfly for apostasy.
The vocal sphere of the opera is dominated by solo forms (arioso, monologues) and dialogic scenes with Puccini's characteristic easy transitions from recitative and recitation to cantilena of wide breathing. The ensembles are represented by two extended duets Butterfly - with Pinkerton (I act) and with Suzuki (1st scene of Act II). Larger ensembles and the choir are used sparingly.
While working on the opera, Puccini studied the traditions of Japanese culture, religious rites, everyday life, collections of Japanese folk songs. He listened to about 100 phonograms of Japanese folk music listening to the peculiarities of the national recitation. The composer tried to emphasize the phonetic originality of the dialect of a Japanese woman in the recitatives of Cio-Cio-san and Suzuki.
Puccini cited seven authentic folk melodies in his music, for example, in the episode of the first appearance of Cio-Cio-san (a graceful "spring song" instrumented with gentle timbres of harp, piccolo flute and bells), in Suzuki's prayer, in the theme of Prince Yamadori (II action).
In addition, relying on the characteristic folklore turns, Puccini creates own themes V Japanese style(theme of Cio-Cio-san-geisha, horn theme from the symphonic intermission before the 2nd scene of Act II).
The orchestra "Madama Butterfly" includes Japanese bells (in the marriage scene), Japanese tom-toms, which have a sound of a certain height, widely use bells, a flute.
The Western world in the music of the opera is also indicated by a quotation. This is the opening phrase of the American national anthem, which opens Pinkerton's aria in act I (its music paints an image of a carefree Yankee who seeks to "pick flowers wherever possible"). The melody of the American anthem "voiced" and the toast "America forever" proclaimed by Pinkerton. Later, she appears in the Cio-Cio-san party, emphasizing her naive belief in the justice of American laws.
As we approach the fatal denouement, the course of action becomes more and more tense, the pace of development accelerates, and the significance of sinister, fatal themes increases. Among them stands out the harsh, aggressive theme of the curse, based on the parallel whole-tone movement of major thirds in a dotted rhythm. Appearing many times, especially in Act II, it acquires the meaning of a rock theme.
Two more important themes of the opera are connected with the dagger with which Father Butterfly once made himself a hara-kiri and which is destined to play a fatal role in the fate of the heroine. The first of the themes, based on sharp trichord intonations in the interval of an increased fourth, is not repeated in the future, but becomes an intonational source for other themes. The second, in fact, the leitmotif of his father's suicide, is a formidable, somewhat archaic melody oriental character- will sound in the final scene of the opera.
Impressionist tendencies are clearly felt in the harmony and orchestration of Madama Butterfly: the widespread use of an enlarged mode with characteristic whole-tone sequences of major thirds, chains of enlarged triads; diverse forms of parallel movement, including seventh and nonchords.
Many features of the harmonic sphere are associated with the transfer of local color: reliance on pentatonic and trichord intonations, empty fifths (often parallel).
The original version of the opera consisted of two acts. The second, very lengthy, was now divided into two pictures (sometimes called actions). The two paintings are connected by a symphonic intermission, which is one of the most significant and striking orchestral episodes in all opera Puccini. Many important themes of the opera take place here.
