Madama Butterfly

Geraldine Farra as Madama Butterfly at the Metropolitan Opera about 1907

Madama Butterfly is an Italian opera in three acts with music by Giacomo Puccini. The libretto was written by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica. It was based on a play by David Belasco. The opera was first performed in Milan, Italy, on February 17, 1904. Its revised version was performed in Brescia, on May 28, 1904. Although a fiasco at its premiere, it soon established itself in its revised version as one of the most beloved of operas.

Principal characters

• Cio-Cio-San - soprano
• Pinkerton - tenor
• Suzuki - mezzo-soprano
• Sharpless - baritone

Madama Butterfly Media

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  Solomiya Krushelnytska as Butterfly, c. 1904

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  Set design by Bailly and Jambon for Act I in the 1906 production

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  Anna May Wong holding the child in the 1922 film The Toll of the Sea

Sources

• The Complete Dictionary of Opera & Operetta, James Anderson, Wings Books, 1989.