Madame Batterflyay
The Opera "Chio-Chio-San" (Madame Batterflya) lies the Novella of the American writer John L. Long, recycled D. Belaso in the drama. Seeing the play during his stay in London, Puccini was excited by her vitality. According to his proposal, Librettists L. Ilka (1859-1919) and D. Jakoz (1847-1906) were written on the basis of drama Opera Libretto. Soon the music was created. At the first submission, held on February 17, 1904 in Milan, Opera, however, failed and was removed from the repertoire. The public did not understand its content and was outraged by an excessive duration of the second act. Puccini reduced some numbers, divided the second act for two independent actions. Fulfilled with these minor changes after three months, the opera had a triumphal success and quickly won a solid reputation as one of the most popular modern operas.
Appeal to the plot from the life of distant Japan responded in European art end XIX. And the beginning of the XX centuries to the exotic, the desire of artists enrich their palette with new colors. But Pucchini did not put a special task of playing in the music of the National Japanese flavor. The main thing for him remained an image of a touching human drama. In her embodiment, the composer managed not only to preserve, but also deepen the content of the literary source. 
Lieutenant American fleet Pinkerton became interested in young Japanese Chio-Chio-san, nicknamed "Butterfly" (in English - butterfly) and decided to marry her. Goro - Professional Japanese Swat - shows him a house with a garden, shot for future spouses. Consul Sharples vainly cautioned his friend from the rash step. The lieutenant does not listen to persuasion: "To tear flowers, where only you can" - Such is his life philosophy. And chio-chio-san is hot like a future husband. For the sake of him, she is ready to take Christianity and take a break with her family. In the presence of the Imperial Commissioner begins the marriage ceremony. It is interrupted by the angry voice of Bonsie, uncle Chio-Chio-san, who curses the niece. Left close, girl bitterly crying; Pinkerton comforts her.
Three years have passed since then. Pinkerton left shortly after the wedding, Chio-Chio-san is passionately waiting for his return. An abandoned husband abandoned by his relatives, she lives with a maid and a small son, about whose existence of Pinkerton does not even suspect. Chio-Chio-san tolerates need, but hope does not leave it. Moro and Sharples come from Pincherthon, a letter from Pincherthona with a request to prepare Chio-Chio-san to a grave news: he married an American. However, Sharples fails to read the letter. Hearing that the husband is healthy and soon must arrive in Nagasaki, Chio-Chio-san interrupts his joyful exclamation. The prince of Yamadori appears, for which the pea is stiguously woven chio-chio-san. Having received a polite refusal, he is forced to retire. Sharples advises her to accept the offer of Yamadori; He hints that Pinkerton may not return, but faith of a young woman is unshakable. A cannon shot is heard - this is in the port. american shipwhich must arrive pinkerton. In joyful excitement of Chio-Chio-san, adorns the house with flowers and, waiting for her husband, peering into the lights of the ship's approaching.
It took the night, but in vain, Chio-Chio-san waited. Tired, it breaks away from the window and, when swinging the child, falls asleep. There is a knock at the door. The delighted maid see Pinkerton, accompanied by Sharples, but with them an unfamiliar lady. Sharples opens Suzuki Truth: This is the wife of Pinkerton, Kat. Having learned that he has a son, Pinkerton came to pick it up. Hearing voices, Chio-Chio-san runs out of his room. Finally she understood what happened. Shocked to the depths of the soul, Chio-Chio-san listen to the will of the child's father. She agrees to give a boy, but cannot survive the collapse of all his hopes. Gently gone with her son, Chio-Chio-san kills himself with a blow of the dagger.
The story of Madame Butterfly, put the Puccini for the basis of the opera of the same name, its roots goes into a rather deep past. In 1816, the Italian traveler Carletti wrote that as soon as foreign sailors were sticking to the Japanese shore, "mediators and sangules who controlled all these processes caused their wards and were interested in the sailors, whether they would not get in the rent, to buy - or whatever I have a different way to get a woman - for the time that they will spend in the harbor "; Then a contract with an intermediary or family of a girl was concluded. Such practice continued with Dutch merchants: For two hundred and fifty years, they, as the only foreigners at the time in Japan, could live on a tiny artificial island of Dyazhma in the harbor of Nagasaki, using the services of the above-described "service". When the French navigator and writer Pierre Loty arrived in the country of the rising sun in 1885, this tradition did not change at all - he shows his detailed and rather popular novel in his time, who said about his six-week "marriage" with some "Madame Chrysanthemum".
Thus, it is not surprising that when in 1892, missionaries of the American Methodist Church of Irvine and Jenny Cornelles arrived in Japan, then their attention was primarily attracted by such a practice.
At first they were not very hurried with stories on this topic; Only a lot later Jenny told one case - about which, according to her, she told the owner of the local shop somewhere in 1895, and the story itself occurred twenty years earlier.
In 1897, Jenny went on vacation to America, where he stopped for some time in Philadelphia at Brother John Luther Long. The latter was a lawyer, however - considering himself a man who did not devoid of abilities, long ago literary works. Exactly one year after the meeting with the sister, he published a small story called Madame Batterfly in the magazine "Century Illustrated Magazine", which went real story From Nagasaki, told him sister.
Pretty soon the story of Long woke up the imagination of David Belaso playwright - and turned into a play, which Pucchini and saw in London in the summer of 1900; The composer was very impressed with the play "Madame Butterfly" and decided to write a opera on the same plot.
The uncomplicated story and those few facts that Jenny Correll found out in Nagasaki, were Long and Belaso professionally processed and structured in a story and a dynamic one-acting play - of course, due to the addition of numerous "authentic" Japanese parts (those in turn, in many respects were Borrowed from the novel of Lotha "Madame Chrysanthemum". The prototypes of such characters like Pinkerton, Goro and Suzuki obviously "came out" from the mentioned novel); However, in the story of Long there are numerous real facts, For a long time, unknown to the world, told him sister.
She told his brother the following. Somewhere in the seventies of the XIX century in Nagasaki there were three brothers-Scots: Thomas, Alex and Alfred Glover. One of them (perhaps Alex - although it is for sure to say, of course, it is impossible) romantic relationships with a Japanese named Kaga Maki, having entertained the public in a local tea near the name Cho-san, or Miss Butterfly. The fact that such relationships with a foreigner at that time were perceived by others as "temporary" marriage, we have already mentioned; It was usually worth such a union of a hundred yen or twenty Mexican dollars, and the "marriage" could be easily terminated by the will of the "husband" at any time.
During communication with the Scotland Kaga Maki, premented, and the eighth of December 1870 she gave birth to a son, calling him chinsaburo. Father soon left a woman and a child, leaving Japan. After some time, the father's brother (Thomas) and Japanese Avai Tsura, with which he lived in civil marriage, took the baby's child from kaga; Women of her profession was not allowed to raise children, and by the decision of the court, the child gave Thomas and Avai Tsuru - he became a member of the family in the house of his receptional parents.
The name of the child was changed to Tomisaburo (in everyday life calling that simple volume); Subsequently, he became famous as that Glover.
At the time when Jenny Correll lived in Nagasaki, Tom Glover, completing his training at Japan's universities and America, returned to his hometown, where she settled, officially registering a new Japanese family of Guraba (so in Japanese sounds the name Glover).
Those who knew that Tom Glover is the son of Butterfly, silence was kept, although John Luther Long in a private conversation and admitted him. At the beginning of the thirties of the last century, Jenny Correll and the Japanese soprano Miura Tamaki (who sang a batterfly party very many times, and a few years earlier discussed the real details of the whole story in a private conversation with Long, remained the only ones who could confirm this fact. In 1931, Tom Glover confirmed in an interview that his mother was Madame Batterflya; Research accounts Japanese registration services also confirmed this.
What happened to real peoplewho served the prototypes of this drama? After her child was given to another family, Kaga Maki (Miss Cho-Cho-San) married the Japanese and left him to another city. After some time they divorced and she returned to Nagasaki, where she died in 1906.
Her son Tom Glover ("Dolor" in Opera) lived in Nagasaki, where he married a woman named Vaka, the daughter of the English merchant; They did not have children. Glover lost his wife during World War II.
War years have affected it hard: in August 1945, after the surrender of Japan, after the American nightmare atomic bombing Nagasaki he committed suicide.
Thus, the events of real life, the most important to the heartbreaking drama of Pucchini, were hardly more tragic than the opera itself. Not a single testimony is not preserved that Kaga Maki - Real Butterfly - even ever managed to see Tomsaburo again. Her son, whose name (Dolore, or sadness) in Opera should have once changed to Gioia (joy), was pursuing unhappiness to his tragic death.
Seeing Belasco's play in London in June 1900, Puchchini immediately sent a request for rights to the drama. However, for one reason or another, official issues were alleged only by September next year. In the meantime, the composer has already sent an instance of the story of Long Long Luigi Ilika, who sketched a sketch of a two-way libretto. The first (initially planned, as a prologue), was entirely built on the story of Long and showed the wedding of Pinketon and Cho-Cho-san (which girlfriends called Batterfly); The second act was based on Belasco's play events and shared on three scenes, where the first and third took place in the house of Butterfly, and the second is in the American consulate.
When Juseppe Jacos began to climb a libretto in a poetic shape, the prologue developed into the first act, and the first scene of the second part rose into the second act. Ilkah intended to leave the end in harmony with Long Book (where Butterfly does not manage to commit suicide: it suddenly runs out her child, and Suzuki gives her wounds) - but the final decision was made in favor of the terrible Final Belavo.
The libretto remained unfinished until November 1902 - and then Pucchini, despite the passionate djacz protests, decided to lower the scene in the American consulate, and at the same time the contrast between the atmosphere and the culture of Japan and the West, which Illyka wished. Instead, the two remaining scenes were merged into one act, ongoing one and a half hours.
Jacos found it so incredible nonsense that insisted on the prints of missing text in libretto; However, Riikardi did not agree.
Work on the writing was interrupted in February 1903: the avid motorist Pucchini fell into an accident and seriously suffered: he was broken by the right foot, which began to grow up wrong, and she had to be artificially breaking again; He long straightened.
The score was completed in December, and then - the premiere for February next year was appointed with the most beautiful composition: Rosina Starcio (Butterfly), Giovanni Zenatello (Pinkerton) and Giuseppe de Luka - Sharples; Conductor - Campagnini Cleepfonte.
Despite the fact that both singers and the orchestra showed a lot of enthusiasm in the work on the preparation of the opera, the premiere became a nightmare; Puccini accused of self-removal and imitation to other composers. The composer immediately withdrew the opera; Being quite confident in the advantages of the "Butterfly", he, however, made some changes in the score - before allowing its execution anywhere else. Puccini threw some details related to the child's relationships in the first act, divided the long second act into two parts intermission and added Arietta Pinketon "Addio, Fiorito Asil".
The second representation took place on May 28 of the same year in the Theater Grande in Brescia; The composition of the soloists remained the same with the exception of Rosina Storcko - the Batterfly Party performed Salome Kruzhelnitskaya. This time, Opera expected a triumphal success.
Nevertheless, Pucchini continued to work on the score - mostly change concerned the first act. The composer's refinement ended with the Parisian premiere given to Opera comedian on December 28, 1906 - it was these performances that were based on the punch printed version of the score.
According to the advice of Albert Carre, theatrical director and husband, Primadonna, Pucchini softened the character of Pinkerton, who dedicated the most sharp statements of xenophobic nature, and also refused to confrontation between Butterfly and Kate - the latter, thus gained more attractive features. Be that as it may, at the beginning of this year Richorda has already published a key, in which many original excerpts can be found, subsequently thrown by the composer. Three of them are all from the first act - were restored for performances in the Milan Theater of Karkano shortly after the First World War with the approval of Puccini itself. Be that as it may, they were reproduced in print again they were not.
Opera in three (originally in two) actions
Composer: Giacomo Puccini
Libretto (in Italian): Giuseppe Jacosa and Luigi Ilika
Characters:
Madame Batterfly (Chio-Chio-San) (soprano)
Suzuki, her maid (mezzo-soprano)
Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton, Lieutenant of the American Fleet (tenor)
Kat Pinkerton, his wife (mezzo soprano)
Sharples, US Consul in Nagasaki (Bariton)
Goro, Macler-Swat (tenor)
Prince Yamadori, Rich Japanese (Bariton)
Uncle Chio-Chio-san, Bonza (bass)
Commissioner (BAS)
Registry official (baritone)
Time of action: around 1900.
Scene: Nagasaki.
Action I.
At the turn of centuries, about forty-five years before atomic bomb Destroyed Nagasaki, this port city was quite a pleasant place. On the hillside, which overlooks the bay, there is a charming Japanese villa. In her garden, where the opera action begins, the Japanese real estate trader and the American marine officer came. This is a Moro Merchant, Macler-Swat, an officer - Lieutenant of the American Fleet. Goro arranged the wedding of Lieutenant and now shows him a house, which is rented for 999 years (naturally, with a reservation convenient for Pincherton, which is possible to abandon this point of the contract). Wedding contract, by the way, contains a similar point that the contract is temporary.
Guest comes - US Consul in Nagasaka Mr. Sharbles, he tries to convince Pinkerton that in such a device affairs is dangerous: he knows the future spouse, her name of Chio-Chio-san, or Madame Butterfly, and he worries that in the end her tender heart will be broken. But Pinkerton is not going to all this seriously and even offers a toast for the day when he really truly marries in the United States.
It's time for the present marriage ceremony. Pinkerton and Sharples go deep into the scene and look down the path leading to the mountain where the tender, funny voices comes from. The voice of Butterfly, soaring over the dense harmonious sound of the votes of her girlfriends accompanying her girlfriends. And all of them appear on stage. She shares Pinkerton about himself and his family that she only has a mother and that she is unhappy: "Her poverty is so terrible." She informs about their age (she passed only fifteen years old), shows him all sorts of baubles - the figurines that she wears in a wide sleeve of Kimono ("This is the soul of ancestors," explains Butterfly), including the dagger, which her father committed suicide Order Mikado. Butterfly with all the heat of a young heart is confessed by Pinkerton, which decided to take his faith: "I will be your work God, becoming your wife." She rushes into pincherton hugs. Meanwhile, Goro spread the frames, turning small rooms into one major hall. Everything is ready for marriage ritual here. There are Sharples and officials. Butterfly enters the room and becomes kneeling. Pinkerton stands near her. Native Butterfly remained in the garden, they all stand on their knees. The Imperial Commissioner performs a brief rite of the ceremony, and everyone sings a toast happy pair. Suddenly, the fun is interrupted by the appearance of a formidable figure. This is Bonza, Uncle Butterfly, Japanese priest; He learned that Butterfly had a missionary and intends to abandon his traditional religion in favor of Christianity. Now he came to hover her from here. All relatives are on the side of the bonsis. Bonza curses Butterfly. Her mother is trying to protect her, but Bonza roughly removes it and comes up with a threatening look to the Butterfly, shouting her curse directly in her face. Pinkerton interferes with the course of events, ordering everyone to be silent. Uncle Bonza stops amazed, then suddenly, making a decision, requires that relatives and acquaintances removed from this house. Pinkerton also orders everyone to leave. In confusion, guests leave newlyweds. The mother is trying to approach Butterfly again, but she is fascinated by other relatives. The action ends with a long wonderful love duet - Butterflya forgets about his excitement. Night. Pure starry sky. Pinkerton sits on a bench in the garden. Batterfly fit to it. They are explained to each other in love. Together they are Lieutenant and Butterfly (now Madame Pinkerton) - enter your new home.
Action II.
Three years have passed since Pinkerton left, but not a single news from him. Suzuki, who prays for Butterfly to his Japanese gods, is trying to convince his mistress that he will never return again. At first, Madame Butterfly angry, but then sings his famous ecstatic Aria "Un Bel di Vedremo" ("Only desired day"), in which it describes in detail how one day he sails into the bay, rises to the hill and will meet his beloved again wife.
Soon Guest appears - Sharples, American Consul. "Madame Batterfly ..." he draws to her. Madame Pinkerton, "she corrects him. He has a letter he wants to read her, but Butterfly is so hospitable excited that he can't do it. They are interrupted by a wedding broker, Goro, who came with the consul, but all this time he wandered around the garden. He brought with him the prince of Yamadori, who wants to marry Butterfly. The lady politely, but firmly refuses to prince. Meanwhile, Sharples again takes an attempt to read the letter. In it, it says that Pinkerton married an American, but the consul is unable to pronounce these tragic words - he lies aloud (in duet) reads only a part of the letter. For a moment it seems to her that the best answer to end with them. Sharples gently advises her to accept the proposal of the Prince. It is impossible, it insists, and gives explanations to this. This is her son, and his name is suffering (Dolore). But this, she adds, only for now. When the father returns, the baby will be called happiness (Gioia). Completely crushed Shales leaves.
In the harbor there is a cannon shot. This comes the American ship - Pinkerton's ship "Abraham Lincoln"! With the joy of Butterfly and Suzuki decorate the house and sing the wonderful duet ("Floral" duet "Let flowers of their petals ..."). Now they are waiting for the arrival of the owner. Butterfly, Suzuki and little suffering are peering into the night bay, waiting for the arrival of the ship. Butterfly makes three holes in paper frames: one for yourself, the other, lower, for Suzuki, the third, even lower, for a child, which puts on a pillow, making him a sign so that he watches through the hole made. There is a beautiful melody (it has been used already in a duet with a letter) - it is performed by the orchestra and sings the choir behind the scene, drawing a silence of the night. So the second action is completed.
Action III
The beginning of the third action takes Suzuki, Butterfly and the baby suffering there, where they were at the end of the second. Only now the baby and the maid, tired, fell asleep; Butterfly still stands motionless and peering into the harbor. Morning. Noise comes from the port. Butterfly transfers his sleeping kid to another room; She sings him a lullaby. The garden includes Consul Sharbles, accompanied by Lieutenant Pinkerton and Kat Pinkerton, his wife-American. Suzuki immediately understands who she is. She does not dare to say about this with her mistress. Also Pinkerton. He sings, and his farewell with once happy for him home sounds extraordinary passionately. He's leaving. At this point, Chio-Chio-san appears, she sees Kat and understands which tragedy is waiting for her. With dignity, she says Kat that she can take her son if Pinkerton comes after him - "Father's will of Sacrednaya."
Left alone with the baby, she knows the only thing she needs to be done. She puts his son on the mat with a leaning left, gives him an American flag and a doll in his hands, offering him to play her, at the same time carefully tie his eyes. Then goes after the screen and there the dagger of his father is thrown into himself, which she always wore with them (she showed him in the first action). And at that moment, when she last hugs his son, Pinketon runs to the room with a scream of despair: "Butterfly, butterfly!" But, of course, he was late. He goes on his knees near her body. Asian melody rattles the orchestra, symbolizing the fatal outcome; She sounded whenever the death mentioned.
After the premiere of the opera, held in 1900, Jacomo Puccini thought about the plot for a new opera. The composer considered many options - from "Tartaren from Tarascona" by A.Deod to "Notes from the Dead House" F.M.Dostoevsky, but ultimately the choice fell on the play of the American playwright D. Balasko "Geisha", which was the recycling of the novel J. Luga .
As for the previous operas, J. Puccini, Libretto for the work, called Madame Batterfly, wrote Luigi Ilika and Giuseppe Jacos. The composer demanded from the libretrists of the utmost complicity of action, calling for the public to the place - and this is contrary to the fact that opera events are stretched for three years, at the beginning of the work of the main heroine fifteen, in the final - eighteen years.
The plot "Madame Batterfly" in some features echoes: This is also a household drama that reveals the tragedy of a broken hope for happiness and love. But if the fate of several acting persons described in the fate of several actors who are equally expensive to the author, but Madame Batterflya is the drama of one young heroine. Other actors make up its environment, which is divided into two "world" - both of them are hostile to chio-chio-san: on the one hand - fanaticism and prejudices of compatriots, on the other - the cynicism of Western civilization.
The opera "Madame Butterfly" occurs in Japan, its central heroine - Japanese, and in the music language it is reflected in full. In this J. Puccini helped the spouse of the Japanese ambassador in Italy, who introduced the composer with the music of his homeland. The author introduced Japanese drum tools to the orchestra, used seven genuine Japanese folk songs, Many melodies in the work is based on the pentatonic. Creates a Japanese flavor and "air" tool. On the other "Pole" opera is the music of a typically western warehouse, and here it also did not cost without quotation: Aria Pinkerton in the first action ("Skitalets Yankees") is framed by the melody of the US anthem. There is a doomed major heroine between these two musical "worlds" - for example, in the first act of a scene-resistant in the Japanese spirit, the duet of Chio-Chio-san and Pinketon in the European style is opposed. Especially dramatic looks like such a comparison in the second act, directly leading to the tragic junction: "Aria of despair", the next conversation with the consul is built on the pentatonic, and in the last Arioso, the melody of the European warehouse sounds.
In Madame Batterfly, J. Puccini remained faithful to his fundamental principle: "The basis of the opera is vocals." However, this installation did not interfere with the composer to create magnificent symphonic episodes - an introduction in the form of a four-eye fugato, an intermission between the patterns of the second action, the orchestral conclusion, melodically associated with "Aria Despair".
The creation of Madame Batterfly took quite a long time. J. Puccini was very busy at this time - his operas were put in various cities, including outside Italy, and he had to visit rehearsals. In addition, he had a new passion - driving a car, which led to the accident and trample of the legs - that also did not contribute to the speedy completion of the score ... Despite all these obstacles, in 1903 the opera was completed, and in 1904 the work was first presented public in Milan.
In the process of rehearsals in success awaiting Opera, no one doubted, but the expectations of the author and performers were not justified. At first, the public kept full silence (in Italy it is already a manifestation of disapproval), then angry cries began - "This is from" Bohemia! " - And the demands of "something new", and finally a discerning public fully gave the will of emotions - the audience whistles, mocked, dirty and other methods expressed their indignation. Critics met Opera no more benevolently.
It is difficult to say what caused the reason for such a crushing fiasco "Madame Batterfly". Definitely the case was not in performers: Chio-Chio-san sang the famous Rosina Storko, Pinkerton - Giovanni Zenatello, and Sharplesa - Giuseppe de Luka, called later "the brightest star of the Golden Age" Metropolitan Opera "... Perhaps the public did not like the plot, in Which was a little action - as opposed to dramatic, and maybe, the dismissions provoked the ill-wishers of the composer. J. Puccini hardly worried the failure of his opera - he overturned the second performance, paying a very significant penalty for it, and took the score. Subsequently, he made a number of changes in Opera - in particular, it divided the long and somewhat prolonged second action into two, making the trichatic opera.
In this form, the opera was put in Brescia three and a half months after the Milane Premiere. Conducted. This time success was triumphal: some rooms were bisited, and each time the composer was called to bows. "Never more" Madame Batterfly "did not fail," the biographer of the composer Z.Mareek notes.
Music seasons
The plot base of the famous Opera "Madame Batterfly", or "Chio-Chio-San" J. Pucchini served Novallla American writer John L. Long, recycled D. Belaso in the play. However, U. literary heroes - Japanese girl of Chio-Chio-San and American Lieutenant of the Marine Fleet Pinketon - were and real prototypes. The fact is that in the second half of the XIX century. In Japan, sold temporary wives. It was quite common such a phenomenon as temporary marriages of foreigners with local girls. For a certain amount, you could buy myself a wife for the time of stay in Japan.
A 15-year-old Japanese, the marriage with which was for an American officer just entertainment, loved him and even took his faith. Because of this, her relatives from her turned away. An American soon returned to his homeland and married another woman. And the Japanese bore his son and continued to wait for his return. Three years later, he returned, with a new wife to pick up her son. As a result of Chio-Chio-san, she committed suicide. Such. summary Stories that became the literary plot. And in the real life of such stories there were many.
The practice of selling temporary wives appeared in those times when the Russian fleet was based in Vladivostok and regularly walked in Nagasaki. At the time of his stay in Japan, many Russian officers bought local girls to cohabit. They concluded a contract for one month to several years, according to which for a monthly fee of 10-15 dollars, they could use the services of temporary wives. The duties of men included the provision of girls with housing, food, hired servant. They could break the marriage at any time.
Foreigners called their wives "Musoma" - from the Japanese "girl", "Daughter." As a rule, it was very young girls - 13-15 years old. Often, poor Japanese artisans and peasants themselves sold their daughters to foreigners, because there was no other way to earn themselves on these girls. They received money and subsequently married local men.
Musoma was neither geisha nor prostitutes. Unlike Geishe, the duties of temporary wives really included intimate services, but these girls did not sell themselves for money many times and different men - earning a sufficient amount, they became respectable Japanese wives. Musoma services used many rich and noble Russians. Temporary wives bought even great princes from the Romanov dynasty.
Trade and military vessels came to Nagasaki not only from Russia. In 1885, the French navigator arrived in Japan and writer Pierre Loty and stayed there for two months. Two years later, he wrote a story "Madame Chrysanthemum" about his temporary wife Ooshu-San. Puccini opera action occurs at the same time and in the same place - Nagasaki, end of the XIX century. The same events describe in its novel D. L. Long.
Japanese tragedy in two acts and three parts; Libretto L. Ihlika and J. Jaczymes in the same story of J. L. Long and the same-named drama D. Belasco.
First statement: Milan, La Scala Theater, February 17, 1904; In a new edition: Brescia, Grande Theater, May 28, 1904.
Characters:
Madame Butterfly (Chio-Chio-San, Soprano), Suzuki (mezzo-soprano), Kat Pinkerton (mezzo-soprano), Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton (tenor), Sharples (Bariton), Goro (tenor), Prince Yamadori (tenor), Uncle Bonza (BAS), Yakside (Bariton), Commissioner (BAS), Registry official (bass), Chio-Chio-san's mother (mezzo-soprano), aunt (mezzo-soprano), Kuzina (Soprano), Dolor (Boy; Mimic role), relatives, friends, girlfriends, servants of Chio-Chio-san.
The action takes place in Nagasaki at the beginning of the XX century.
The first action.
Japanese house on one of the hills near Nagasaki. Goro shows it to the American Lieutenant of the Marine Fleet Pinkerton, who is going to live here with the young Gayache Chio-Chio-san: their marriage in the Japanese ritual should soon take place. The American Consul of Sharbles, to whom Pinkerton sets out his frivolous views on life, in particular, marriage with Japanese, leaving him the opportunity to marry an American (duet "Dovunque Al Mondo Il Yankee Vagabondo", "Amore O Grillo"; "Yankees Skitalets "," Caprice Ile Passion "). But the voices of chio-chio-san and her friends are away. Chio-Chio-san, called Butterfly, talks about his life: her father was a notable samurai, but the poverty made the girl to become Gaisa ("Nessuno Si Confessa Mai Nato in Poverta"; "Easy to remain poor to those who were rich?"). She is ready to renounce his religion if Pinkerton wants it. When the marriage ceremony ends, a funny feast begins, which interrupts the arrival of the angry uncle Batterfly - Bons. He learned about the intentions of the niece to go to Christianity and curses it along with other relatives. Pinkerton will drive everyone and takes his wife to the house (duet "Viene La Sera ...", "Bimba Dagli Occhi Pieni D" Amore ";" Oh, what for the evening! "," I am all admiring your eyes ").
Action second. Part one.
Three years have passed. Butterfly in his own house is waiting for the return of Pinketon and convinces Suzuki's maid, that he will soon return ("Un Bel di, Vedremo"; "On a clear day desired"). The Sharples and Goro are included: in the hands of the consul a letter in which Pinkerton asks him to inform Butterfly, that he married an American. Sharples no way decides to say about this young woman. He advises her to agree to accept the proposal of Prince Yamadori. Butterfly shows them his little son: he is waiting for his father. A cannon shot that announces that an American ship arrived at the port. Butterfly is covered by joy, she decorates the house with flowers ("Scuoti La Fronda"; "Let the flowers with their petals") and waiting for Pinketon. The night is coming. Suzuki falls asleep near the child, butterfly wakes, fixed, like a statue.
Part two.
Light. Butterfly, tired of sleepless night, faced to relax. At this point, Pinkerton includes the house, his wife Kat and the consul: Lieutenant hopes that his former beloved will give him a child. Having learned from Suzuki, as she waited for him, he could not hold back the excitement ("Addio, Fiorito Asil"; "Goodbye, peaceful my shelter"). Butterfly in the face of Kat and from the words of the consul guess everything. She will give his son to only his father in half an hour. When everyone leaves, she drives the room and prepares for death. Suzuki pushes a boy into the room, hoping to distract the mother from the terrible intention. A young woman gently says goodbye to him, gives him toys and tie his eyes, and she cares for a shirma. She still has enough strength to return to the child and the last time to hug him. Pinkerton's voice calls her, Lieutenant and Consul enter the room. Chio-Chio-san, dying, a weak gesture shows them on her son.
In the two-hot version of the Opera, which during the premiere in La Scala was conducted by Clefonte Campanini, failed. With a change in some details, especially in the first action, and with the division of two acts into three parts (that is, almost three acts) opera had a triumphal success in the Grande Theater in Brescia after about three months. In 1907, RiCordi published a final version. Consciously exotic, as well as the future "Turandot", the tragedy of naive Japanese was marked by cunning, sadism, predatory cruelty under the guise of civilization, in which the barbarism disguised as a culture is not easy to recognize. Varvar is a Western person, and genuine civilization embodies a fragile woman, externally apparent, opposite, the personification of primitive culture, full superstition and excessive aesthethy. She feels the need to retreat from this culture to find shelter in the arms of his Savior, who came from the world of progress and realism. This is the conviction of a heroine that keeps in deception leads to the close connection of Western music of the late XIX century (popular and scientist, from the US Anthem to Tristan Wagner, to Massne and Reminisity from "Bohemia" and "Toski") with the echoes of Japanese music, characterized by pentaton gamma.
Immediately at the beginning of the nervous fugato entry into imitation XVIII century Enters the image to the means of Japanese music conversations, and we begin to distinguish paints typical tools, ringing and air. In addition, the use of modalism ascending to "Boris" Mussorgsky and in general to the discoveries of a "mighty bunch", as if bridges between these two musical hemispheres. In general, the contradiction between the two types of mentality tends to resolve, especially in the image of the main character (this time a real heroine), snapped wings in an absurd attempt to prevent the conflict of two worlds. The plot of the opera is not new (see "Lacm" Delibe), but Bucchini brings it to the sharp limits, so that he becomes a symbol, although it is not obverse: before us the consequences of the loss and cringe of virginity.
Butterfly really appears in the first act, as if brought on the wings of the sounds of the creature, untouched, barely born and already welcome. "An indifferent" conversation of two Americans, meanwhile, presented her sacrifice, especially, of course, pinkerton's cynicism; Sharples, as we know, does not reach it and tries, on the contrary, to save the dignity of the Yankee-Aventyurist. The crowd of relatives and acquaintances of Butterfly, invited to the marriage ceremony, revitalizes the full movement of the scene, which Pucchini directs a confident hand: this is an amazing pattern of a collective presentation with a cute, pedantic transmission of exotic traits. The duet of newlyweds, on the contrary, is the most European and cerebral, although the next very workshop, well-established schemes, is very good orchestrated, marked with various magnificent ideas, full of foliage and flavors, but at the same time so tightened that it involuntarily creates the impression that It is confirmed - the insincerity of Pinketon.
The second act is entirely belongs to Chio-Chio-san: an endless critic (depicted by changed, more muted orchestral paints) passes the heroine in a tense waiting, squeezing his teeth, with a smile on the face, surviving the alarm, volatile, intercepting the breath of doubt, frantic delight (as in The well-known Aria "On a clear day is desirable"), expressing the children's innocent and disadvantaged, right up to self-denial, hope. The lullaby, guarding the child's dream and the vigor of the mother, choral singing with the mouth closed, creates a gentle, non-manual image of a woman. With the same meekness and gullibility of Butterfly became the mother. When it turns out that this gullibility is Popran and is predicted, insulting the maternal feeling, the deprivation of her son is shocked by the consciousness of the viewer.
The excitement breaks through in one gesture, similar to the cinematic frame, as in the scene of the death of Manon. It has something morning: the notorious short breath of Pucchini transfers morning cries, which, despite all the dignity and chastity of the heroine, cannot hide behind the screen, as she herself is at the time of suicide. We are talking about the gesture of Butterfly, when she squeezes seven times in the arms of his son, as if seven times with all his heart calling him. After the first partition of the last Arioso, painful, sharp, cleaner, reflecting the close relationship of the ritual of ancestors, a young woman rushes to the melody of the Western warehouse, as if stretching his hands to protect her child, go out to the West, where the sun comes. When on the last syllables of the word "abbandono" ("leaving") a melody goes to the tonic of the SI Minor and from here begins his terrible flight to the dominant, accompanied by heavy gong strikes on a very simple, archaic and impressive arpeggio-melody scheme, sprinkled with the limits of the tonality, is poured into The flow of a huge force, breaking about this terrible "Gioca, Gioca" ("Play, Play"), followed by a dark tube. The orchestra meets the well-motive of pipes and thrombones The appearance of a father - the topic of the house on the hill, if you can say so, goes back to the aria "on a clear day desired"; Pinkerton appears too late. The farewell topic is immediately sounds, again the nodded, triumphant, sore, truly bloody, illuminating the suicide with the harsh light of martyrdom. The last chord is actually a contemptant silence of a subsection of civilization.
Markisia
Discography: CD - Decca. Conductor Karajan, Butterfly (FRI), Pinkerton (Pavarotti), Sharples (Kerns), Suzuki (Ludwig).
CD - EMI. Barbirolli conductor, Butterfly (Scotto), Pinkerton (Bargon), Sharples (Penters), Suzuki (di Stasio).
CD - EMI. Conductor Gawartage, Butterfly (Los Angeles), Pinkerton (di Stefano), Sharples (Gobby), Suzuki (Channels).
