Behind the Scenes of Madama Butterfly

Amid the familiar sounds of Puccini, we are taken from the nightlife of San Francisco’s Chinatown to the fallout from Pearl Harbor, as told through voices and perspectives of Asian Americans during a critical time in American culture and history. The Chinese American nightclub scene peaked during World War II when Asian Americans of all backgrounds were commanding nightclub stages while defying racial and cultural barriers. Many performers presented publicly as Chinese American due to growing anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States.

In this new production, Butterfly works as a singer in a nightclub while contributing to the war effort. This version of her character is inspired by historical individuals like Dorothy Toy (1917-2019), a famed Japanese-American dancer who presented publicly as Chinese American due to growing anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States.

In Act I, Pinkerton, a young soldier, wanders into Butterfly’s club on the eve of his deployment. The atmosphere is joyful, celebratory, a last golden moment set apart from the harsh realities of war. As part of the nightclub’s regular act, one audience member and one of the performers are chosen to “marry” in a staged ceremony. This is how Butterfly and Pinkerton meet, and their connection blossoms into real-life love. Act II takes the audience to a starkly different environment, opening on an incarceration camp for Japanese Americans, where Butterfly now finds herself living with her young child, waiting for Pinkerton to return.