Madama Butterfly
The story of Cio-cio-san, the eternally faithful heroine, is one of the most wrenching (and well-known) in all of opera. A young geisha is so blinded by hope for a better life that she does not see the truth about the man she loves until it is too late. But look deeper, there is more to this story than we often see.
The culture conflict between the East and West is just beneath the surface. In 1900, Japan was discovering the West, both the arrogance and the promise, for the first time. During that
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