The tremendous popularity of the Broadway musical Miss Saigon, modeled on Madame Butterfly, demonstrated the story’s usefulness in maintaining an orientalist world view while America stayed its imperialistic course in Asia. Butterfly is merely a sexual plaything to Pinkerton, an object to the subject, an exotic doll whose tragic end is pre- and over-determined in a genre littered with the corpses of young women. In the collision of two worlds - the Orient filled with nubile geishas and the imperialist America of virile officers - it is clear who holds all the power to define, represent, and ultimately, decide the life and death of the other.Īs glorious as Butterfly’s music is, she is not free to come and go, to marry another or keep her child, or to continue living with the shame of abandonment and dishonor. Yet just as often, Madame Butterfly was performed by an all-white cast (not unlike the common practice of whitewashing in Hollywood), made up to look like stereotypical Asians with yellowface makeup (exaggerated slant to the eyes, darkened complexion) and gestures (mincing steps, excessive bowing). In the first half of the twentieth century, Japanese singers Tamaki Miura and Hizi Koyke lent their “authentic” Japanese qualities, singing Cio-Cio San on opera stages around the world.
A staple of the opera stage and an audience favorite, Madame Butterfly has afforded more than a few Asian sopranos their one big chance at singing a titular role at a time when Asian artists were all too often denied opportunities because of discriminatory casting practices. joins LA Opera as a guest contributor for the month of May and in recognition of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.Īsians in opera have had a complicated relationship with Puccini’s Madame Butterfly for the past century. "Even more encouraging in a world where the same handful of works gets recycled again and again is the infusion of new works by composers from a range of backgrounds."
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