A uniquely sensitive and moving piece here, Allen. I don't think I've seen the topic of colonialism handled this way before. I quite enjoyed it. I wonder if the tragedy of moral corruption of the coloniser is perhaps more readily available in the version with Pinkerton and Kate discovering the child and dead mother. Without the final triumph of Madame Butterfly, I wonder if the moral failure of Pinkerton might strike the heart more acutely. I don't know, since I haven't seen or read any of these stories.
Thanks for your comment here. I think you are right that, with Butterfly dead, the moral truth of colonialism is clearer. The 1932 movie stands out, in my view, in giving her the upper hand when she bows to tradition. In Puccini version, it seems to me when I see the opera or listen to it, the work is seen as Pinkerton's tragedy. I have often wondered what came next for him. He would have had his little boy, half Japanese, to remind him of his betrayal of the boy's birth mother and then the task of explaining the boy's history to the boy. One thing I should have said is that Puccini's music is so sweeping and effective that it seems to tell the story. But music captures the ins and outs of narrative in code that isn't always clear to those who are not musicologists. Thank you again for your comment.
A uniquely sensitive and moving piece here, Allen. I don't think I've seen the topic of colonialism handled this way before. I quite enjoyed it. I wonder if the tragedy of moral corruption of the coloniser is perhaps more readily available in the version with Pinkerton and Kate discovering the child and dead mother. Without the final triumph of Madame Butterfly, I wonder if the moral failure of Pinkerton might strike the heart more acutely. I don't know, since I haven't seen or read any of these stories.
Thanks for your comment here. I think you are right that, with Butterfly dead, the moral truth of colonialism is clearer. The 1932 movie stands out, in my view, in giving her the upper hand when she bows to tradition. In Puccini version, it seems to me when I see the opera or listen to it, the work is seen as Pinkerton's tragedy. I have often wondered what came next for him. He would have had his little boy, half Japanese, to remind him of his betrayal of the boy's birth mother and then the task of explaining the boy's history to the boy. One thing I should have said is that Puccini's music is so sweeping and effective that it seems to tell the story. But music captures the ins and outs of narrative in code that isn't always clear to those who are not musicologists. Thank you again for your comment.