LETTER of the MONTH

I can’t believe it’s not Butterfly

ontrary to the review of Hahn’s opera (January), the librettist Pierre Loti’s novel did not. The opera’s origins are more complex and interesting, and the main inspiration for Puccini’s masterpiece was , a one-act drama by the American playwright and producer David Belasco. Puccini saw the play in London in 1900 and set about licensing it. But there’s a backstory, too: Belasco’s play was based on a story by US author John Luther Long, who claimed to have heard the ‘true’ tale of Cho-Cho-San from his sister. She had lived in Nagasaki as the wife of a Methodist missionary. Yet there are what seem to be obvious borrowings from in Long’s work, though their plots diverge. The opera takes liberties with Long’s and Belasco’s plots, too. Somebody should sort all this out!