Madame Butterfly

Performance of Madame Butterfly in 2017 for the centenary of Shinpa school

The plot

Act I

At Nagasaki at the beginning of 20th century, a young naval officer named Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton rents a traditional house during his stopover in Nagasaki via Goro, a matchmaker. The house comes with servants, among them young Suzuki, serving girl to Cio-Cio-san (Madame Butterfly), a beautiful young geisha. Pinkerton gets married to Cio-Cio-san with Sharpless, the American consul as witness. For him, it is a simple exotic convenience, but for her, it is very serious and she renounces her religion and converts to Christianity. After a ceremony spoiled by her uncle, a priest who curses her for turning her back to her ancestry, Pinkerton and Cio-Cio-san live a short idyll. But Pinkerton must soon go back to USA.

Act II

Three years have passed. Cio-Cio-san is still waiting for Pinkerton to return from whom she has no news. She has remained faithful in spite of numerous mariage offers brought by Goro. At last, Pinkerton comes back to Japan, but with Kate, his American wife. He learns that he has now a son born while he was away. Pinkerton, Kate and Sharpless go to the house and pay a visit to Cio-Cio-san who understands the situation. She gives her son to Kate who pledges to raise him and commit suicide with her father's short sword.

The actress

Mizutani Yaeko (1905-1979) was a star from 1930 to 1960 and played in numerous films and plays. Her daugher Mizutani Yaeko II (born in 1939) is an actress and singer and manages today a Shinpa school kabuki theater company.