1904 : Madame Butterfly premieres
On this day in 1904, Giacomo Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly
premieres at the La Scala theatre in Milan, Italy.
The young Puccini decided to dedicate his life to opera after seeing a
performance of Giuseppe Verdi's Aida in 1876. In his later life, he
would write some of the best-loved operas of all time: La Boheme
(1896), Tosca (1900), Madame Butterfly (1904) and Turandot (left
unfinished when he died in 1906). Not one of these, however, was an
immediate success when it opened. La Boheme, the now-classic story of
a group of poor artists living in a Paris garret, earned mixed
reviews, while Tosca was downright panned by critics.
While supervising a production of Tosca in London, Puccini saw the
play Madame Butterfly, written by David Belasco and based on a story
by John Luther Long. Taken with the strong female character at its
center, he began working on an operatic version of the play, with an
Italian libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica. Written over
the course of two years--including an eight-month break when Puccini
was badly injured in a car accident--the opera made its debut in Milan
in February 1904.
Set in Nagasaki, Japan, Madame Butterfly told the story of an American
sailor, B.F. Pinkerton, who marries and abandons a young Japanese
geisha, Cio-Cio-San, or Madame Butterfly. In addition to the rich,
colorful orchestration and powerful arias that Puccini was known for,
the opera reflected his common theme of living and dying for love.
This theme often played out in the lives of his heroines--women like
Cio-Cio-San, who live for the sake of their lovers and are eventually
destroyed by the pain inflicted by that love.
Perhaps because of the opera's foreign setting or perhaps because it
was too similar to Puccini's earlier works, the audience at the
premiere reacted badly to Madame Butterfly, hissing and yelling at the
stage. Puccini withdrew it after one performance. He worked quickly to
revise the work, splitting the 90-minute-long second act into two
parts and changing other minor aspects. Four months later, the
revamped Madame Butterfly went onstage at the Teatro Grande in
Brescia. This time, the public greeted the opera with tumultuous
applause and repeated encores, and Puccini was called before the
curtain 10 times. Madame Butterfly went on to huge international
success, moving to New York's Metropolitan Opera in 1907.
history.com/tdih.do
General Interest
1904 : Madame Butterfly premieres
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihVideoCategory&id=52405
1801 : Deadlock over presidential election ends
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=6810
1957 : Gromyko becomes foreign minister
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=50495
1979 : China invades Vietnam
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=4769
##########################################
On this day in 1904, Giacomo Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly
premieres at the La Scala theatre in Milan, Italy.
The young Puccini decided to dedicate his life to opera after seeing a
performance of Giuseppe Verdi's Aida in 1876. In his later life, he
would write some of the best-loved operas of all time: La Boheme
(1896), Tosca (1900), Madame Butterfly (1904) and Turandot (left
unfinished when he died in 1906). Not one of these, however, was an
immediate success when it opened. La Boheme, the now-classic story of
a group of poor artists living in a Paris garret, earned mixed
reviews, while Tosca was downright panned by critics.
While supervising a production of Tosca in London, Puccini saw the
play Madame Butterfly, written by David Belasco and based on a story
by John Luther Long. Taken with the strong female character at its
center, he began working on an operatic version of the play, with an
Italian libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica. Written over
the course of two years--including an eight-month break when Puccini
was badly injured in a car accident--the opera made its debut in Milan
in February 1904.
Set in Nagasaki, Japan, Madame Butterfly told the story of an American
sailor, B.F. Pinkerton, who marries and abandons a young Japanese
geisha, Cio-Cio-San, or Madame Butterfly. In addition to the rich,
colorful orchestration and powerful arias that Puccini was known for,
the opera reflected his common theme of living and dying for love.
This theme often played out in the lives of his heroines--women like
Cio-Cio-San, who live for the sake of their lovers and are eventually
destroyed by the pain inflicted by that love.
Perhaps because of the opera's foreign setting or perhaps because it
was too similar to Puccini's earlier works, the audience at the
premiere reacted badly to Madame Butterfly, hissing and yelling at the
stage. Puccini withdrew it after one performance. He worked quickly to
revise the work, splitting the 90-minute-long second act into two
parts and changing other minor aspects. Four months later, the
revamped Madame Butterfly went onstage at the Teatro Grande in
Brescia. This time, the public greeted the opera with tumultuous
applause and repeated encores, and Puccini was called before the
curtain 10 times. Madame Butterfly went on to huge international
success, moving to New York's Metropolitan Opera in 1907.
history.com/tdih.do
General Interest
1904 : Madame Butterfly premieres
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihVideoCategory&id=52405
1801 : Deadlock over presidential election ends
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=6810
1957 : Gromyko becomes foreign minister
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=50495
1979 : China invades Vietnam
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=4769
##########################################
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