The opera Madame Butterfly was based on a dramatization by David Belasco of the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long. The short story was published in 1898, and 2 years later the impresario Belasco dramatized it and gave the play its debut in New York.
Later that year the play was performed in London, and Giacomo Puccini found himself in the audience. Here was a story with a strong female lead character--something the composer believed had been a major factor in the success of his opera Tosca.
Puccini wrote Madame Butterfly based on the Belasco dramatization, with an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica. The composition took him 2 years, partly because of a forced 8-month break while he recovered from a serious auto accident.
Madame Butterfly was a flop at its 1904 world premiere at La Scala in Milan. It was pulled after one night. Puccini revised the opera, splitting the long second act in half, and premiered it a second time in Brescia, Italy, this time to great acclaim. The opera was revised three more times before reaching its final form in 1907.
Some scholars suggest that the short story "Madame Butterfly" was based on actual events in Nagasaki involving a Scottish tradesman named Thomas Grove, but most historical evidence doesn't support this theory.
No one is entirely certain about the origins of the story "Madame Butterfly." Tourists still visit the Glover house in Nagasaki, but they are now informed that the house is merely "reminiscent" of Puccini's setting. Still, the garden remains adorned by statues of Puccini and Tamaki Miura, a Japanese soprano who became famous for her rendition of the title role.