Allegory of Desparation

We saw the Met Opera 2019 version of Puccini Madama Butterfly, gorgeously presented, and I was knocked sideways by the contemporary allegorical possibilities. As we entered I found myself questioning even going to this opera as the cultural treatment is terrible and dated, but because the music is so good, we headed in.

It was clear from the start that this story works on a much larger scale than just a triangulated love story of deep sadness, it works as an allegory of human arrogance, naivete, dominance over nature that ends sadly and desperately as she is ruined and killed while the guilty white male perpetrator grieves and drowns in his own sorrow, sad, sad, sad, and current in its reach.