Madama Butterfly Aria : Puccini's birthday tribute

 An aria ...... and some special bits too

On Puccini's birthday I thought it only fitting as a tribute to take a look at another of his operas - Madama Butterfly. Only one aria here but probably one of the best know throughout the opera world and beyond, sung here by Renata Scotto, such a beautiful and moving rendition, my grateful thanks go to Margherita Pisanu for drawing my attention to this video which has in my all too brief affair with opera so far passed me by - it's exquisite

Un bel dì - One beautiful day

Act II of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly

CONTEXT: This famous soprano aria opens Act II, after Butterfly, the young Japanese Geisha girl, has married her American admirer Pinkerton in Act I. It establishes that Butterfly has now been abandoned by Pinkerton, but still clings to the hope that he will come back to her. The oppressive atmosphere of the house, which penniless Butterfly now rarely leaves, is conjured by Puccini’s unique sound world: two flutes open the act, playing in unison. Butterfly entreats her maid to have faith, and reassures her that Pinkerton will return to save them.
She sings of keeping watch for his boat, secure in the knowledge that ‘one beautiful day’ (un bel dì), he will return. She’ll see a puff of smoke on the far horizon, she says, and his ship will appear. This is indeed what is about to happen, but Butterfly’s longed-for beautiful day will prove to be her last, as the tragically soaring melodies of this aria hint......

......another big hint, time to get the tissues out when watching this opera if you haven't already

Un bel dì,
vedremo levarsi un fil di fumo
Sull’estremo confin del mare.
E poi la nave appare.

Poi la nave bianca entra nel porto,
romba il suo saluto.
Vedi? È venuto!
Io non gli scendo incontro, io no.
Mi metto là sul ciglio del colle
e aspetto e aspetto gran tempo
e non mi pesa la lunga attesa.
E uscito dalla folla cittadina
un uomo, un picciol punto
s’avvia per la collina.
Chi sarà? Chi sarà?
E come sarà giunto?,
che dirà? Che dirà?
Chiamerà Butterfly dalla lontana
Io senza dar risposta me ne starò nascosta.
Un po’ per celia,
un po’ per non morire
al primo incontro,
ed egli al quanto in pena
Chiamerà, chiamerà:
‘Piccina mogliettina
Olezzo di verbena’
I nomi che mi dava al suo venire.
Tutto questo avverrà, te lo prometto.
tienti la tua paura io con sicura fede l’aspetto.




English translation



One beautiful day,
we’ll see a plume of smoke
on the far edge of the sea.
And then a boat will appear.

Then a white ship will come into the port,
and sound its horn.
Do you see it? He is coming!
I won’t go down to meet him, not I.
I’ll wait here on the hill and wait
and wait a long time
and I won’t mind the wait at all.
And out of the crowd
a man will set off on his own,
a little speck climbing the hill.
Who will it be? Who will it be?
And how will he appear?
What will he say? What will he say?
He’ll call out ‘Butterfly’ from far away.
But I won’t answer, I’ll hide.
Just to tease him a little,
just to save myself from
dying at our first meeting,
and he, a little troubled,
will call out, will call out
‘my dear little wife,
sweet verbena blossom.’
The names he called me when we first met.
All this will happen, I promise you.
Don’t worry; I am very sure that he will come.



OK, let's just hear this again from my favourite Butterfly, Ying Huang in the film version of Madam Butterfly

Well, I could not leave it at just that could I, just one aria, I have to include here the famous Humming Chorus, OK I know there's no words, lol, but when would a little detail like that stop me

and there's no way I can leave this opera alone without including the love duet, having published this yesterday I awoke this morning and the first thing that came into my head was that I just had to include this too so I'm back to put this right with a video of the gorgeous Ying Huang as Butterfly in the 1995 film version