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When I was seven, my aunt, Maestra, took me to see Madama
Butterfly at the Met. My most dramatic memory of that evening was that I
lost my mother’s precious mother-of-pearl opera glasses! I may have been too
young to understand the pain of Butterfly’s love affair, but that night I
realized the emotional power of opera. As I watched the people become
mesmerized by the singer, I realized something important was happening. The
passion reached me and Un bel di vedremo became a continuous presence in my
childhood. Butterfly’s faithful passion has always touched me deeply.
In the opera, Madama Butterfly is married to an American
naval officer, Pinkerton, who has left her three years earlier. Despite all
urging to forget him and marry again, Butterfly has unshakable faith that
Pinkerton will return to her. As Butterfly says, "One beautiful day we will
see a line of smoke on the horizon." Puccini’s music paints images of the
ship pulling into the harbor, the cannons booming, and of Pinkerton’s
gradual approach, calling her sweet names. She waits for him with "certainty
and faith."
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