page_title: Madama Butterfly
section_title: Adaptations
hierarchical_section_title: Madama Butterfly / Adaptations
caption_attribution_description: English: United States actress Anna May Wong holds Priscilla Moran in the 1922 Hollywood film The Toll of the Sea. Beatrice Bentley sits to the left.
context_page_description: Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa.
  It is based on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which in turn was based on stories told to Long by his sister Jennie Correll and on the semi-autobiographical 1887 French novel Madame Chrysanthème by Pierre Loti. Long's version was dramatized by David Belasco as the one-act play Madame Butterfly: A Tragedy of Japan, which, after premiering in New York in 1900, moved to London, where Puccini saw it in the summer of that year.
  The original version of the opera, in two acts, had its premiere on 17 February 1904 at La Scala in Milan. It was poorly received, despite having such notable singers as soprano Rosina Storchio, tenor Giovanni Zenatello and baritone Giuseppe De Luca in lead roles. This was due in part to a late completion by Puccini, which gave inadequate time for rehearsals. Puccini revised the opera, splitting the second act in two, with the Humming Chorus as a bridge to what became Act III, and making other changes. Success ensued, starting with the first performance on 28 May 1904 in Brescia.
context_section_description: 1915: A silent film version was directed by Sidney Olcott and starred Mary Pickford.
  1919: A silent (tinted) film version (titled Harakiri) directed by Fritz Lang and starring Paul Biensfeldt, Lil Dagover, Georg John and Niels Prien.
  1922: A silent color film, The Toll of the Sea, based on the opera/play was released. This movie, which starred Anna May Wong in her first leading role, moved the storyline to China. It was the second two-color Technicolor motion picture ever released and the first film made using Technicolor Process 2.
  1931: Concise Chōchō-san by the Takarazuka Revue
  1932: Madame Butterfly, a non-singing drama (with ample portions of Puccini's score in the musical underscoring) made by Paramount starring Sylvia Sidney and Cary Grant in black & white.
  1940: Ochō Fujin no Gensō (お蝶夫人の幻想) "Madame Butterfly's Illusion", a 12-minute Japanese silhouette animation film.
  1954: Madame Butterfly, a screen adaptation of the opera, directed by Carmine Gallone jointly produced by Italy's Cineriz and Japan's Toho. The film was shot in Technicolor at Cinecittà in Rome, Italy. Starring Japanese actress Kaoru Yachigusa as Cio-Cio San and Italian tenor Nicola Filacuridi as Pinkerton, and with Japanese actors and Italian actors, dubbed by Italian opera singers.
  1974: Madama Butterfly, a German television adaptation of the opera starring Mirella Freni and Plácido Domingo, directed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle.
  1989: The West End and Broadway musical Miss Saigon was, in part, based on Madama Butterfly. The story was moved to Vietnam and Thailand and set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War and the Fall of Saigon, but the central themes are largely unchanged.
  1995: Frédéric Mitterrand directed a film version of the opera, Madame Butterfly, in Tunisia, North Africa, starring Richard Troxell and Chinese singer Ying Huang in the lead roles.
  1995: Australian choreographer Stanton Welch created a ballet, inspired by the opera, for The Australian Ballet.
  1996: The album Pinkerton by the rock band Weezer was based loosely on the opera.
  2004: On the 100th anniversary of Madama Butterfly, Shigeaki Saegusa composed Jr. Butterfly to a libretto by Masahiko Shimada.
  2013: Cho Cho, musical drama by Daniel Keene, music by Cheng Jin, set in 1930s Shanghai.
caption: Anna May Wong holding the child in the 1922 film The Toll of the Sea
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