Intermezzo (Madama Butterfly)

Madama Butterfly closes the central period of Puccini’s creative life — years of success, experiment and renewal. The idea arose during a visit to London for a performance of Tosca, when a play centred on a geisha moved him deeply, above all through the complexity of its heroine. Puccini was fascinated by the possibility of suggesting a Far Eastern atmosphere through orchestral colour, instrumental combinations and nuance. The premiere at La Scala was a failure, in part because of the excessive length of the second act. Puccini revised the opera, and only four months later the new version triumphed in Brescia. What began in defeat became one of the works that secured his place among the defining composers of the operatic stage.