Madame Butterfly

MP3 Audio CD. Madame Butterfly

ARGUMENT

ACT I

Lieutenant B. F. Pinkerton, of the United States Navy, is about to contract a "Japanese Marriage" with Cho-Cho-San, known among her friends as Butterfly. When the curtain rises he is being shown over the little house on the hill, which he has leased at Nagasaki and is about to occupy with his Japanese wife. Goro, the nakodo or marriage broker, who has arranged the match, has also found him the house and is enjoying Pinkerton's surprise and pleasure at the ingenious contrivances of the building. Pinkerton is then introduced to the three Japanese servants, one of whom is Suzuki, Butterfly's faithful maid. His friend Sharpless, the American Consul, arrives, and the two men settle down to an intimate chat. Sharpless looks upon Pinkerton's projected alliance with disfavour, and begs him to reflect before taking the step. He urges that what is a mere pastime to Pinkerton may be a very serious matter — a matter of life or death — to the Japanese girl. Pinkerton laughs at his friend's apprehensions, and their discussion is interrupted by the arrival of the bride and her friends. Greetings are interchanged; Sharpless takes the opportunity of getting into conversation with Butterfly and is more than ever convinced that she is taking her marriage very seriously. That his misgivings are not groundless is soon proved, for in a pretty interview with Pinkerton, Butterfly confides to him that she has, secretly and quite unknown to her relations, renounced her faith, the faith of her forefathers, before entering on her new life with him; a step which means cutting herself adrift from all her old associations and belongings, and entrusting her future entirely to her husband. The relations arrive, together with the Japanese officials, and the marriage contract is signed with due ceremony. While the guests are joyfully drinking the newly-wedde