Madama Butterfly is a 1904
opera in three acts by
Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian-language
libretto written by
Luigi Illica and
Giuseppe Giacosa. The plot is based on the short story "
Madame Butterfly" (1898) by
John Luther Long in turn based on stories told to Long by his sister Jennie Correll and on the semi-autobiographical 1887 French novel
Madame Chrysanthème by
Pierre Loti. The opera features Pinkerton, a U.S. naval officer, who rents a house in
Nagasaki, Japan, for himself and Cio-Cio-San (nicknamed Butterfly), a 15-year-old Japanese girl whom he is marrying for convenience and intends to leave once he finds an American wife. This watercolor illustration on cardboard, from the archives of the music publisher
Casa Ricordi, depicts the
scenic design for a 1906 production Act 1 of
Madama Butterfly, set in the hills near Nagasaki.
Illustration credit: Alexandre Bailly and Marcel Jambon; restored by Adam Cuerden