Orientalism in Giacomo Puccini’s 'Madama Butterfly'

 Postcolonialism is a theoretical approach that deals with colonization and its later effects. Starting from the 16th Century, European countries were becoming stronger and by the 19th Century, they became much more powerful with the rise of the British and French empires which led to dominance as well as imperialism over other countries. As Western Empires grew larger, they had a major historical effect on world history. Such power proved the dominance of the European empires as they shaped history with their imperial rules. “Children, both black and white, will have been taught to see history, culture, and progress as beginning with the arrival of the Europeans.” (Barry 349). In this context, postcolonial writers and critics mainly explored the postcolonial situation after the independence of the colonies, the attitudes of the Western colonizers toward the East, and the situation of the colonized. The problem is that Western colonizers perceived the East as other and oriental which triggered the interest of theorists such as Edward Sais and Homi K. Bhabha. The professor and the critic of Postcolonialism, Edward Said explored Orientalism, otherness, and inferiority by focusing on Eastern stereotypes which later influenced Homi K. Bhabha who accepted and challenged the views of Said in a broader sense. The previous article gives a brief overview of Said and Bhabha. The readers who are not familiar with the background of postcolonialism and its literary approach can read this article by accessing through the attached link. In this article, I intend to examine the oriental aspects with the relevant ideas of ‘’the other’’ and stereotypes of both Said and Bhabha in the opera, Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini.

Orientalism by Edward Said, Penguin Classics

Madama Butterfly is a 1904 Opera composed by Giacomo Puccini. The libretto, which is a literary text of an Opera that is written for compositions, was written jointly by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giosca. Puccini was inspired by the short story Madama Butterfly written by John Luther Long. Not only the story but also the music has Oriental aspects. Thus, I believe Madama Butterfly is a very good example and applicable to illustrate the ideas of Said and Bhabha on Orientalism and Stereotypes.

Madama Butterfly Poster

“Opera is itself ‘exotic’ in relation to the norms of Western culture.” (Till 737). It is true that Opera can also be classified as an Oriental art form with its emphasis on ‘’other’ through the erotic and exotic dances, colorful traditional clothes, as well as imperialist plots. Especially in the mid-19th century, oriental operas were very popular such as Bizet’s Carmen and Puccini’s Turandot. “The predominant narrative structure for such operas, found for instance in L’Africaine (mostly set in the ‘Indies’), Lakmé (set in India) and Madama Butterfly (set in Japan), stages the encounter between the Western male and a native female. The native female is often portrayed as weak and passive, inviting the love of (and domination by) the conquering Western male, although the dangers of the European encounter with the exotic other are also conveyed by the femme fatale, who uses her sensuous attributes to lure the innocent white male to his fate, evident in Carmen and Dalila- ‘’ (Till 747).

Poster of Carmen of Bizet

Puccini was especially interested in the exoticism of foreign cultures. Through his musical composition, in Turandot, which is set in an uncertain time, Puccini explores the Chinese culture, and in Madama Butterfly he explores Japanese music; ‘’ For all of Puccini’s extensive use of authentic or quasi-authentic heard, imagined, or self-made Japanese melodies, of instrumental hues and timbres of an impressionist order and pentatonic scale, the score of Madama Butterfly contains ‘scarcely a bar that does not bear the composer’s unmistakable signature’: the Japaneseness of the opera is a Japan reflected through the prism of Puccini’s imagination”. (40). Madama Butterfly tells the story of a 15-year-old Japanese geisha, Cio-Cio San who was arranged to marry Pinkerton who is a Lieutenant in the navy of the United States. Pinkerton goes to Japan to carry out his naval missions, and upon seeing Cio-Cio San he wants to marry her immediately. Yet, abandons her and marries an American woman, with whom he returns to Japan. Cio-Cio San who was living in the hope that Pinkerton would return one day, upon seeing the new wife of the lieutenant, commit suicide out of her grief.           

Lieutenant Pinkerton's interest in the other and exotic

 In the opera, both Said’s and Bhaba’s ideas about Orientalism and stereotypes are present. The ideas of Edward Said are clearly noticeable mainly with the views of Japan’s exoticism and how Japanese women were perceived in the eyes of the American colonizer. First of all, Japan is presented as a colorful, feminine, exotic, and appealing land which is the reason why Pinkerton bought a house there; ‘Pinkerton: I bought this house for nine hundred and ninety-nine years, but with the option to cancel the contract every month. In this country the houses and the contracts are elastic!’’ (42) he implies that in Japan the legal process of owning a property is easier than in his country which portrays Japan as inferior to the US and emphasizes a sense of superiority of Pinkerton. Secondly, Females are presented as exotic and erotic;

‘’Pinkerton: -All I know is that her innocent charm has entranced me. She delights me. She’s fragile and slender, dainty in stature, and a quaint little figure. She seems like a figure from a painted screen or from a work of lacquer. She’s light as a feather and flutters like a butterfly, hovering and settling with gracious silence. I want to run after her furiously and break her fragile wings.’’ (Illica and Giacosa 43)

 In this scene, Pinkerton sees her beauty as exotic and erotic. Thus, he is affected by her fragility and passionately wants to acquire her as if she is a prize. Also, he uses flower imagery to express her beauty by exoticizing her. ‘’PINKERTON: Yes, it’s true, she’s a flower, a flower, and, upon my honor, I’ve plucked her!’’ (Illica and Giacosa 7). Further, Pinkerton is also moved by the idea that she acts and speaks childishly. ‘’PINKERTON: With those childlike ways, when she talks, she sets my blood on fire.’’ (Illica and Giacosa 6). He views Cio-Cio San as not only vulnerable but also childish. 

Oriental Japan - Metropolitan Opera | Madama Butterfly

The theoretical ideas of Homi K. Bhabha are also present in the Opera. Like Said, Bhabha also agrees with the features of the stereotypes of the East. Cho-Cho San idolizes the oppressive Westerner on her wedding day. ‘’BUTTERFLY: He’s so handsome one just couldn’t imagine anything better!’’ (Illica and Giacosa 6). Thus, she is ready to abandon her culture and engage in performative national hybridity through her marriage with Lieutenant Pinkerton. In addition, due to her adoration for her husband, she willingly turns to Christianity which is the religion of Pinkerton. ‘’Butterfly: (confidentially to Pinkerton) Yesterday I went to the mission alone and secretly. I went there to adopt a new religion for my new life. My uncle Bonzo or the others don’t know it I humbly follow my fate and will kneel before Pinkerton’s God. It is my destiny. I will kneel in the same church as you and pray to the same God. And to make you happy, I will forsake my ancestral religion! My love!’’ (Illica and Giacosa 55). She completely rejects her religion and Japanese gods to be able to mimic the West and engage with the culture of her husband. ‘’Butterfly: The gods of Japan are fat and lazy. The American God is more persuasive and responds immediately to prayers. But I fear he doesn’t know that we are here in this house.’’ (Illica and Giacosa 65). Also, she feels a connection with American culture as she insists that Japan is not her country anymore;

‘’BUTTERFLY: The Japanese law...not that of my country now.

GORO: Which country?

BUTTERFLY: The United States’’ (Illica and Giacosa 15).

As a result, she becomes a religiously and culturally hybrid subject. She does not aim to subvert colonial oppression. Instead, she attempts to mimic the Western culture as she converts to Christianity and continuously rejects and abandons her own culture to embrace the American culture instead. However, her attempts to connect with the culture of the West and her Colonial mimicry, even her ambivalence, are brutally prevented by Pinkerton. He abandons Cio-Cio San to enjoy a second wife that he would marry in America. Yet, Cio-Cio San lives in the hope that her beloved will return one day. When he sees that the American ship is approaching, she relives and is extremely happy to be able to reunite with him;

‘’(A cannon is heard.) SUZUKI: The harbor gun! A warship!

BUTTERFLY: It’s white... white... the American flag! with the stars...Now it’s maneuvering to drop anchor. (She takes the telescope) - I alone knew...Only I who love him. Do you see how foolish your doubts were? He’s come! He’s come! He’s come! Just at the very moment when everybody said: weep and despair! My love triumphs, yes, triumphs! My faith is completely vindicated!’’ (Illica and Giacosa 19).

However, learning that Pinkerton is married to an American and brought his wife to Japan, Cio-Cio San suffers which eventually causes her downfall by her suicide in the final scene of the Opera.

The Scene of Suffering

‘BUTTERFLY: Oh, you who have come down to me from high heaven, look well, well on your mother’s face, that you may keep a faint memory of it, look well! Little love, farewell! Farewell, my little love! Go and play. (She picks up the child and sets him down on a mat; she gives him an American flag and a doll to play with and gently blindfolds his eyes. Picking up the knife she goes behind the screen. Then appearing from behind the screen with the white veil clasped round her throat, Butterfly staggers across the room towards the baby, and collapses beside him.)’’ (Illica and Giacosa 24).                                                                                     

Thus, even at her death, her commitment to cultural hybridity is still present. Seeing that she cannot be with Pinkerton she kills herself. Their child has a hybridity as well since it was born out of mixed cultures of Japan and America. Thus, Madama Butterfly wants her child to connect with its American identity, because she was not able to integrate with her cultural hybridity and pushed once again to Japanese culture by Pinkerton. It is clear that when she gives the child an American flag, Cio-Cio San does not want her child to embrace the Japanese culture. This act is also an act of ambivalence that evidently shows the otherness of the child implying its cultural hybridity that may later cause the child to have a performative national identity.

 To conclude, through my article, I attempted to illustrate the aspects of stereotype, otherness, and exoticism in the Opera Madam Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini. I analyzed the scenes by giving related quotations both from the libretto and additional academic sources to prove my point. I believe that it is a good work to illustrate the theoretical ideas of Edward Said and Homi K. Bhabha over Postcolonialism and Orientalism since it is one of the well-known examples of 19th-century Oriental operas.

SOURCES CITED

 Burton, Fisher D. Opera Classics Library: Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. Opera Journey’s Publishing, 2001. Coral Gables, Florida.

Illica, L, and Giacosa G, and Puccini, Giacomo. Madama Butterfly: A Japanese Tragedy. Translated by Elkin R.H. OperaGlass Libretto. Stanford.edu. 29 Mar 2009. Accessed from http://opera.stanford.edu/Puccini/Butterfly/libretto_a.html 7 June 2023.

 Ping-hui Liao, “Of Writing for Music Which Is Already Made: Madama Butterfly, Turandot, and Orientalism”, Cultural Critique. 1990. Accessed From https://zlibrary-asia.se/ 6 June 2023

 Till, Nicholas. “An exotic and irrational entertainment: opera and our others; opera as other”. The Cambridge Companion to Opera Studies. Cambridge University Press, 2012. Accessed From https://zlibrary-asia.se/ 7 June 2023

 Miskimmon, Annilese. ‘’ Sex, betrayal, suicide: is Madama Butterfly too sordid to stage today?’’. The Guardian. 5 June 2018. Digital image. Accessed From https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jun/05/metoo-madama-butterfly-puccini-geisha-opera-women-exploitation 7 June 2023

 Mitchell.S. ‘’Review Madama Butterfly’’ The Oxford Culture Review. Digital image. Accessed From https://theoxfordculturereview.com/2015/02/23/review-madama-butterfly/ 6 June 2023