Madama Butterfly/Madamu Batafurai

Puccini''s famous but controversial Madama Butterfly reflects a practice of ''temporary marriage'' between Western men and Japanese women in nineteenth-century treaty ports. Groos'' book identifies the plot''s origin in an eye-witness account and traces its transmission via John Luther Long''s short story and David Belasco''s play. Archival sources, many unpublished, reveal how Puccini and his lib...