Giacomo Puccini was not a prolific composer: in quite a long life he wrote only twelve operas, three of them one-acters designed to be performed together. Yet he has to be ranked today as the world's most popular composer of opera. His Bohème and Tosca are more frequently performed in the great opera houses than even Aïda or The Marriage of Figaro, and Madama Butterfly and Manon Lescaut don't fall far behind. And when we ask which is the most recent opera to have achieved world-wide popularity, the answer is Turandot (which Puccini was still composing when he died in 1924.

Even before Tosca had been successfully launched in Rome in January, 1900, Puccini began to search for a suitable subject for his next opera. A number of plays and novels were considered, among them Maeterlinck's

Pelléas et Mélisande (although, or perhaps because, Puccini knew that Debussy was already at work on his opera based on the play, Victor Hugo's Les Misérables and Alphonse Daudet's Tartarin de Tarascon. It was not until he went to London in the summer of 1900 in connection with the first English production of Tosca that Puccini found what he was looking for: a one-act play, Madama Butterfly. The composer's London friends Alfredo and Maria Angeli drew his attention to the play, and when Puccini attended a performance at the Duke of York's Theatre he was deeply impressed by what he saw: by what he saw rather than by what he heard, for his English was too poor for him to understand much of the dialogue. He was greatly struck by the performance of Evelyn Belasco, who had adapted the play from a story by John Luther Long. Belasco, in an autobiographical article, tells how Puccini rushed into the green room after the performance, embraced him, and begged for permission to use the play as the basis of his next opera. ' I agreed, at once,' wrote Belasco, 'and told him he could do anything he liked with the play, and make any sort of contract, because it was impossible to discuss arrangements with an impulsive Italian who has tears in his eyes and both his arms around your neck.'

Tears notwithstanding, on his way back to Italy from London Puccini stopped off in Paris where he consulted Emile Zola about the possibility of using Zola's novel, La Faute de l'abbé Mouret, for his next opera. And some weeks later he was considering Marie Antoinette as a subject. However, in a letter to Gilio Ricordi in November, after mentioning various other suggestions, Puccini admits he has not yet found his subject: "I despair of it and am tormented in spirit. If at least some reply would come from New York (i.e. from David Belasco). The more I think of Butterfly the more irresistibly am I attracted. Oh, if only I had it here that I might set to work on it! I think that instead of one act I could make two quite long ones: the first in North America and the second in Japan. Illica could certainly find in the novel everything that is wanted".

'The novel' is, of course, John Luther Long's story, which is not even long enough to be called a novella. When he read the story in Italian, Puccini realised that it was vastly inferior to the play which Belasco had fashioned from it. The play set entirely in Japan, and takes place within a twenty-four hour period, but it retains much of Long's dialogue and adds to it, sometimes none to happily (Belasco has Butterfly die in Pinkerton's arms).

It was not until April of the following year, 1901,  that negotiations were completed with Belasco for the use of Madama Butterfly. (In the intervening months, Italy's greatest composer, Giuseppe Verdi, had died in his eighty-eighth year, and Puccini had attended his funeral as the official representative of the town of Lucca. As soon as a contract had been signed with Belasco, Puccini's collaborators Giocosa and Illica, the librettists of La Bohème and Tosca set to work on the play. (It was to be  their third and last Puccini opera: Giocosa died in 1906, and, although Puccini subsequently often considered using Illica either alone or with a partner, he did not, in fact, do so.) As usual, it was Illica's  task to plan the dramatic structure and draft the dialogue, which Giocosa would turn into verse. Puccini had by now abandoned his idea of a two-act opera, one act of which would be set in America, and his librettists proceeded to prepare a work in thee acts, all of which were set in Japan.

Shortly after beginning work on the libretto, Illica wrote to Ricordi: 'In this first act there are even too many opportunities for music. However, I shall leave them all in, and later we can see which to keep and which not, for all are beautiful.' By the end of the summer, Puccini had received two acts from Illica, but it was June of the following year, 1902, before he was to have the complete libretto, in Giocosa's Italian verse. He had begun to compose the music, but was having second thoughts about the three-act structure. At the end of November, Illica and Giocosa agreed reluctantly to drop the second of the three acts and Puccini was now able to begin in earnest the composition of the opera.

At the same time he immersed himself in japonaiserie, consulting a well-known Japanese actress who happened to be in Milan, and acquiring Japanese folk-songs through the wife of the Japanese ambassador. His curiosity even extended to the Gilbert and Sullivan Japanese operetta, The Mikado, a vocal score of which was still to be seen in his library at Torre del Lago in recent years, with an attempt at Italian translation of two of the numbers pencilled in.

Work on Butterfly was interrupted and slowed down for some months when Puccini's splendid new automobile skidded off the road near Lucca on a wet and foggy night in February, 1903, and plunged down a 15-foot embankment. Puccini was thrown out of the vehicle and suffered a compound fracture of the right shin bone, from which it took him several months to recover. The fracture was badly set, and had to be broken again and reset, leaving him with a permanent limp. It was to be more than two years before he was able to walk unaided. In May, 1903, he wrote in a state of deep depression to Illica: 'Addio tutto, addio Butterfly, addio Vita mia!' But the following month he began slowly to resume work, and by the end of the year the orchestration of Madama Butterfly was completed.

Well, the rest is history.

Adapted by Marie Benoît

from Charles Osborne's 'The Complete Operas of Puccini', New York, Atheneum 1982

Butterfly in Gozo

The Madama Butterfly of 7 January 1977 in Gozo marked a historic event – the first of what was to become a genre in its own might – known to us today as Opera in Gozo, brought to us, in good part thanks to the Philharmonic Societies of Victoria.

And as it celebrates its 160th anniversary (since 1863), the Leone Philharmonic Society turns, once more, to this Puccini evergreen. Hence, Madama Butterfly returns to the Aurora on Saturday 14th October 2023 in a mesmerising production designed by Luke Azzopardi, directed and choreographed by Riccardo Buscarini and conducted by resident conductor Colin Attard.

The Aurora Opera House chose to bring Cio-Cio-San’s story to life with a bill of formidable artistes. Italian soprano Federica Vitali, in the title role, is one of the current emerging eminent stars on the European platform of opera. She brings vocal prowess with charm and flair. She will be flanked by Mikheil Sheshaberidze, in the role of Pinkerton. The Georgian-born tenor is fitting his Malta debut amidst other notable roles in major European capitals, following successful appearances in notable venues such as the Verona arena, the San Carlo in Naples and the major operas in Malmo, Zagreb, Cagliari, Bucharest and others. Mezzo-Soprano Manuela Custer, appearing as Suzuki, brings with her the verve and quality of the most prestigious opera houses and concert halls all over the world apart from the solid experience of someone who has worked with the likes of Chailly, Lopez-Cobos and Luisi amongst others. Baritone Piero Terranova makes it three with Sharpless, after bagging a successful Amonasro in Aïda and Giorgio Germont in La Traviata in October 2022 and April 2023 both at the very same Aurora Opera House. The 2023 Madama Butterfly will also include a fine selection of the nation’s singers such as Cliff Zammit Stevens who will be singing Goro, Gozitan-born Stanley Portelli sings Yamadori, Louis Andrew Cassar sings Bonzo, Ken Scicluna sings the Imperial Commissioner while Clare Ghigo takes on the role of Kate Pinkerton.

But the Aurora has also heavily invested in having Madama Butterfly 2023 making a bold aesthetic statement. To this end, the theatre forged an interesting collaboration with fashion designer Luke Azzopardi who, together with stage director and choreographer Riccardo Buscarini has created an original production that will last long in the memory of the Maltese opera audiences for the compelling and striking aesthetic impact it is set to make.

Madama Butterfly is “the quintessential opera for any fashion designer to work on because it has a sort of paradoxical power” says Luke Azzopardi. The physical presence of the bodies on stage shall blend with the fecund terrain on which they stand. The creative team behind the production promises a beautifully simple and self-explanatory show, but most of all, one that allows the expression of precise aesthetic intention. Nature becomes a mirror reflecting human longing.

A limited number of tickets for this one-time performance on Saturday 14th October 2023 now remains, via the ticket helpline +356 79045779. The Aurora Opera House is supplementing the actual opera experience with a number of complements, including an exclusive vin d’honneur reception during the break and the options of Premium Boxes inclusive of champagnes and wines. All details available on this website or through the ticket helpline.

Madama Butterfly is being supported by the Investment in Cultural Organisations – Gozo programme, by Arts Council Malta and the Ministry for Gozo.