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Discussion Questions
1. In successive revisions of the opera Puccini softened his portrait of Pinkerton, who at first was presented as the worst kind of imperialist: callous, arrogant, and unthinking, treating indigenous peoples as objects and exploiting their bodies and labor for personal profit or pleasure. In your opinion, is the portrait in the opera too harsh? Not harsh enough?
2. Madama Butterfly is set in 1904. How accurate today is Puccini’s portrait of the American abroad? What about of the American military abroad?
3. Should the setting be updated to highlight contemporary issues or contemporary parallels to this 102 year-old opera? Would that add or detract to the telling of Butterfly’s tale? Does the setting matter to you?
4. The house, with its paper walls and heavy iron locks, is vividly presented in the text and music. What does it symbolize for Butterfly? For Pinkerton?
5. Sharpless and Suzuki are both sympathetic toward Butterfly and concerned for her happiness. Should they have taken bolder steps to try to save Butterfly during her three-year vigil? Or at the very end? Could they have saved her?
6. Does Pinkerton have any redeeming qualities? What are his weaknesses? Is it possible that he was completely unaware of how much he would hurt Butterfly by marrying her, leaving her, and telling her an outright lie about returning when the robin makes its nest?
7. Japan was forced to establish diplomatic and commercial relations with the West in 1853 when US Navy Commander Matthew Perry pulled into the harbor of Uraga and pointed dozens of cannons at the shore. Perry’s “Black Ships” became, in Japan, a symbol of the threat and power of Western technology and colonialism. Would Japan be better off today if it were still sealed off from the influence of the West? What options are available to cultures that resist globalization?
8. The inscription on Butterfly’s dagger reads, “He dies with honor who cannot live with honor.” Butterfly’s intentions were entirely honorable – she loved Pinkerton (or at least the ideal of Pinkerton and an “American marriage”) unselfishly and with her whole heart – albeit with childish naiveté. Did she dishonor herself by believing in a man who turned out to be dishonorable? Could she have continued to live with honor? In 1904? In 2006?
9. At the time of Madama Butterfly’s creation in 1904, Japan was a mysterious place. Its customs and traditions were presented in art and literature as impenetrable and incomprehensible to Westerners. In previous incarnations of the Butterfly story (the short story by John Luther Long and the play by David Belasco) this widespread perception resulted in a cardboard cutout character who spoke in Pidgin English. Did Puccini fall into the same trap? How recognizable are the human emotions Butterfly experiences? Is Butterfly a fully developed character or does she strike you as a two-dimensional image on a Japanese fan?
10. Puccini worked hard to weave actual Japanese melodies and harmonies into his score. So did Arthur Sullivan in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado, for that matter. Do these snippets of authenticity add or detract from the style and feeling of this extremely Italian opera?
Photos courtesy Minnesota Opera
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