Giacomo Puccini's "Madame Butterfly" has become more than just a pretty piece of music. It has turned into something of a popular icon for East-West relations. Poor faithful Cho-Cho-san, left behind by faithless Lt. Pinkerton, doing away with herself while Little Trouble, fruit of their union, all oblivious, waves the American flag.
The pathos of that innocence traduced has wet many an opera-going eye, and the sweet sorrow of Butterfly's lament, "One Fine Day," has moved many an otherwise stolid heart.
But this passing passion, like the music itself, is comfortable. It demands no redress, no indignation. We do not have to earn our easy emotion, and this makes "Madame Butterfly" popular.