The creation of the "Madame Butterfly" in opera form began in the year 1900, when Italian opera composer Giacomo Puccini saw a performance of David Belasco's play of the same name on a London stage (the play was, itself, an adaptation of a short story by American author, John Luther Long). Puccini was so enchanted by the story that he soon commissioned his librettist partners to begin work with him on an Italian-language opera adaptation of the story.
The story of "Madame Butterfly" takes place in Japan at the turn of the twentieth century and follows the tale of a young Japanese woman, Cio-Cio San (also known as Madame Butterfly) and her love affair with British Navy Lieutenant Pinkerton, a man who believes his marriage to Cio-Cio San to be a form of fantasy prostitution, unaware that the young woman takes the union quite seriously and has turned her back on her family and religion in order to become his wife. When Pinkerton leaves, Butterfly bears him a son and faithfully awaits his return for three years, only to be heartbroken and commit suicide when he eventually returns with his American wife.
The opera was presented in its first version at La Scala in 1904, but initially was poorly received and closed after its first performance. The creators reworked the opera over the course of the next few months (condensing certain parts, adding some musical material and restructuring the opera to play in two acts instead of one) in order to re-open it in Brescia. This time, the work was a tremendous success with audiences.
Following the successful second debut of "Madame Butterfly," performances were done throughout Italy and moved into other Western countries. In 1906, an English-language libretto was set to Puccini's score while the author made two further major revisions to the work. The latest changes, made in 1907, resulted in what is now considered the "standard" version of the opera, the one most performed.
"Madame Butterfly" has remained a staple of Western opera literature since its initial success during its first years of performance. The opera is perhaps best known for Butterfly's famous aria, "Un Bel Di," which is considered a major staple of the operatic soprano repertoire (the aria's melody is also so famous that it was once featured in an ad for Rice Krispies). However, modern analysis of the opera's story and subject matter has included much criticism regarding what is often considered to be stereotyped and racist portrayals of Asian culture and individuals.