Puccini's Madame Butterfly is the heartbreaking story of Cho-Cho-San, a beautiful, fragile Japanese Geisha, whose trust and fidelity are betrayed by her husband, an American Navy Lieutenant. Stationed in Nagasaki, Lieutenant Pinkerton acquires his wife as casually as his house—both leased for 99 years, with the option to cancel at any time. After their honeymoon, Pinkerton departs, promising to return. But for three long years, Cho-Cho-San awaits, and when he finally does return, he brings his new American wife—and finds he has a son by Cho-Cho-San. This picture book adaptation of the tragic libretto features haunting paintings that evoke the opera's exotic setting and emotional resonance, creating a captivating, cultured introduction for young readers.
Author
An Italian composer, son of Michele Puccini and fifth in a line of composers from Lucca. After studying music with his uncle, Fortunato Magi, and with the director of the Insituto Musicale Pacini, Carlo Angeloni, he started his career at the age of fourteen as an organist of St. Martino and St. Michele, Lucca, and at other local churches. However, a performance of Verdi's Aida at Pisa in 1876 made such an impression on him he decided to become an opera composer. With a scholarship and financial support from an uncle, he was able to enter the Milan Conservatory in 1880. During his three years there, his chief teachers were Bazzini and Ponchielli. Punccini's best known operas are: Le villi (1884), Edgar (1889), Manon Lescaut (1893), La Boheme (1896), Tosca (1900), Madama Butterfly (1904), La fanciulla del West (1910), La rondine (1917), Il trittico" and Turnadot (1926). During the composition of Turnadot, he was diagnosed with throat cancer, and died after receiving treatment in Brussles. Turnadot, was left unfinished, but was completed by Franco Alfano.
