Sally Stockhold

Madame Butterfly, "J.L. Long let me live but Puccini murdered me"

From “myselfportraits, ode to icons” Series
Hand-colored archival pigment print
Edition of 6 + 2 APs
Sally Stockhold © 2008

Madame Butterfly (Cio-Cio-San) (1898–) Madame Butterfly was an original short story written by J.L. Long in 1898. Butterfly, a Japanese geisha, was abandoned by her family and her American naval officer lover and left to raise their child alone and in shame. She wanted to kill herself, but instead chose to live for her child’s sake. For dramatic effect Puccini, the Italian operatic composer, changed the story and “murdered” Butterfly in the last act of his beautiful opera of the same name by having her commit suicide. Madame Butterfly, depicted as a strong yet accommodating female, might have taken Puccini aside to discuss the inappropriate ending of the beautiful opera of the same name.

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