Madame Butterfly (play)

Last updated
Valerie Bergere
as Cho Cho San (ca. 1902). Valerie Bergere 1.jpg
Valerie Bergere
as Cho Cho San (ca. 1902).

Madame Butterfly: A Tragedy of Japan is a play in one act by David Belasco adapted from John Luther Long's 1898 short story "Madame Butterfly". It premiered on March 5, 1900, at the Herald Square Theatre in New York City and became one of Belasco's most famous works. The play and Long's short story served as the basis for the libretto of Puccini's 1904 opera, Madama Butterfly . The title role was originally played in New York and London by Blanche Bates; in 1900–01 in New York by Valerie Bergere; [1] and in 1913 by Clara Blandick.

Contents

Production

Page one of the first violin part of incidental music for Madame Butterfly by William Furst Page one of the first violin part of incidental music for Madame Butterfly by William Furst.jpg
Page one of the first violin part of incidental music for Madame Butterfly by William Furst

Madame Butterfly was first performed March 5, 1900, at the Herald Square Theatre in New York City, after the curtain raiser Naughty Anthony. [2] The play was written and produced by David Belasco, with scenic design by Ernest Gros; incidental music was composed by William Furst. [3]

Cast

See also

Further reading

Related Research Articles

<i>Madama Butterfly</i> 1904 opera by Giacomo Puccini

Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Madame Butterfly (short story)</span> 1898 short story by John Luther Long

"Madame Butterfly" is a short story by American lawyer and writer John Luther Long. It is based on the recollections of Long's sister, Jennie Correll, who had been to Japan with her husband, a Methodist missionary. It was first published in Century Magazine in 1898 and adapted for the stage in 1900. Giacomo Puccini based his 1904 opera Madama Butterfly on the play.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Belasco</span> American theatrical producer, impresario, director, and playwright

David Belasco was an American theatrical producer, impresario, director, and playwright. He was the first writer to adapt the short story Madame Butterfly for the stage. He launched the theatrical career of many actors, including James O'Neill, Mary Pickford, Lenore Ulric, and Barbara Stanwyck. Belasco pioneered many innovative new forms of stage lighting and special effects in order to create realism and naturalism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francis Neilson</span>

Francis Neilson was an accomplished British-born American actor, playwright and stage director. He was also a political figure and former member of the British House of Commons. An avid lecturer, Neilson was an author of more than 60 books, plays and opera librettos and the most active leader in the Georgist movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Luther Long</span> American lawyer and writer (1861-1927)

John Luther Long was an American lawyer and writer best known for his short story "Madame Butterfly", which was based on the recollections of his sister, Jennie Correll, who had been to Japan with her husband—a Methodist missionary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blanche Yurka</span> American actress and director (1887–1974)

Blanche Yurka was an American stage and film actress and director. She was an opera singer with minor roles at the Metropolitan Opera and later became a stage actress, making her Broadway debut in 1906 and established herself as a character actor of the classical stage, also appearing in several films of the 1930s and 1940s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blanche Bates</span> American actress (1873–1941)

Blanche Bates was an American actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Victory Theater</span> Childrens theater in Manhattan, New York

The New Victory Theater is a theater at 209 West 42nd Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, near Times Square. Built in 1900 as the Republic Theatre, it was designed by Albert Westover and developed by Oscar Hammerstein I as a Broadway theater. The theater has been known by several names over the years, including the Belasco Theatre, Minsky's Burlesque, and the Victory Theatre. The theater is owned by the city and state governments of New York and leased to nonprofit New 42, which has operated the venue as a children's theater since 1995. The New Victory presents theater shows, dance shows, puppet shows, and other types of performance art shows from all around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Furst</span> American composer

William Wallace Furst was an American composer of musical theatre pieces and a music director, best remembered for supplying incidental music to theatrical productions on Broadway.

<i>Madame Chrysanthème</i> (opera)

Madame Chrysanthème is an opera, described as a comédie lyrique, with music by André Messager to a libretto by Georges Hartmann and Alexandre André, after the semi-autobiographical novel Madame Chrysanthème (1887) by Pierre Loti. It consists of four acts with a prologue and an epilogue and is set in Nagasaki, Japan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Valerie Bergere</span> American stage actress

Valerie Bergere was a French-born American actress who had a near fifty-year career in theatre and cinema. She began in the chorus of a touring opera company before acting in repertory theatre productions for nearly a decade. Bergere rose to play leading roles, but found her true success in vaudeville where for some seventeen years she remained one of the top draws in variety theatre. Over her later years Bergere also took on character roles in some twenty Broadway and Hollywood productions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Un bel dì, vedremo</span> Aria from the opera Madama Butterfly, composed by Giacomo Puccini

"Un bel dì, vedremo" is a soprano aria from the opera Madama Butterfly (1904) by Giacomo Puccini, set to a libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It is sung by Cio-Cio San (Butterfly) on stage with Suzuki, as she imagines the return of her absent love, Pinkerton. It is the most famous aria in Madama Butterfly, and one of the most popular pieces in the entire soprano repertoire.

Madama Butterfly is an opera by Puccini.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evelyn Millard</span>

Evelyn Mary Millard was an English Shakespearean actress, actor-manager and "stage beauty" of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries perhaps best known for creating the role of Cecily Cardew in the 1895 premiere of Oscar Wilde's play The Importance of Being Earnest.

<i>The Girl of the Golden West</i> (play)

The Girl of the Golden West is a theatrical play written, produced and directed by David Belasco, set in the California Gold Rush. The four-act melodrama opened at the old Belasco Theatre in New York on November 14, 1905 and ran for 224 performances. Blanche Bates originated the role of The Girl, Robert C. Hilliard played Dick Johnson, and Frank Keenan played Jack Rance. Bates was joined by Charles Millward and Cuyler Hastings for two-week Broadway runs in 1907 and 1908. William Furst composed the play's incidental music. The play toured throughout the US for several years.

M. Butterfly is a play by David Henry Hwang. The story, while entwined with that of the opera Madama Butterfly, is based most directly on the relationship between French diplomat Bernard Boursicot and Shi Pei Pu, a Beijing opera singer. The play premiered on Broadway in 1988 and won the 1988 Tony Award for Best Play. In addition to this, it was a Pulitzer Prize for Drama finalist in 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lyceum Theatre (Park Avenue South)</span> Former theatre in Manhattan, New York

The Lyceum Theatre was a theatre in New York City located on Fourth Avenue between 23rd and 24th Streets in Manhattan. It was built in 1885 and operated until 1902, when it was torn down to make way for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower. It was replaced by a new Lyceum Theatre on 45th Street. For all but its first two seasons, the theatre was home to Daniel Frohman's Lyceum Theatre Stock Company, which presented many important plays and actors of the day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Herald Square Theatre</span> Former theatre in Manhattan, New York

The Herald Square Theatre was a Broadway theatre in Manhattan, New York City, built in 1883 and closed in 1914. The site is now a highrise designed by H. Craig Severance.

<span title="French-language text"><i lang="fr">Madame Chrysanthème</i></span> (novel) 1887 novel by Pierre Loti

Madame Chrysanthème is a novel by Pierre Loti, presented as the autobiographical journal of a naval officer who was temporarily married to a Japanese woman while he was stationed in Nagasaki, Japan. It closely follows the journal he kept of his summer 1885 affair with Kiku (Chrysanthemum) née Kane a few blocks north of Glover Garden in the Jūzenji neighbourhood; modern day Jūninmachi, whence she fled to hometown Takeda due to xenophobia. Originally written in French and published in 1887, Madame Chrysanthème was very successful in its day, running to 25 editions in the first five years of its publication with translations into several languages including English. It has been considered a key text in shaping western attitudes toward Japan at the turn of the 20th century. It is known in Japan under the title of お菊さん, which is a direct translation of the French name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hizi Koyke</span> Japanese singer

Hizi Koyke, born Koike Hisako, was a Japanese singer based in the United States.

References

  1. Strang, Lewis Clifton (1902). Famous Actresses of the Day in America. Boston: L. C. Page and Company. pp. 176–180.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Dramatic and Musical". The New York Times. March 6, 1900. Retrieved 2017-03-20.
  3. "Madame Butterfly". Internet Broadway Database . Retrieved 2017-03-20.