Art and Technology Blog Post 3

When I watched Pjotr Sapegin's animated version of Madame Butterfly what really struck me was the ending where Madame Butterfly, whose name I later learned is Ciocio-san, essentially kills herself by disassembling herself and from those parts she transforms into a butterfly and goes on to repeat the story. It'd seemed like it was a true tragedy because she was forced to go through the story infinitely. I think Sapegin really wanted to use the story to reflect on a part of U.S. history that is often not even brought up in a classroom. The aftermath of WWII and the Vietnam War with the U.S. soldiers getting sexually involved with the women of those countries is never really mentioned in U.S. education as it would ruin the perspective the public has of U.S. soldiers being very honorable people.

After watching the animation I looked up the synopsis of the actual opera and the differences between the opera and the animation do change the story but not necessarily in a bad way. The animated version had a different point to get across so I think the adaptations of the opera were appropriate in telling the story the way he wanted to. That being said I believe that the Opera is a more compelling story; the story is more dramatic. I think the biggest difference between the two is the child. In the opera the child was given to the American by choice because Ciocio-san wanted to see her American husband so badly. That treatment of the child has the biggest effect on the story because in the animation it was the child being torn from her that made Ciocio-san kill herself, but in the opera it is that her husband is a coward that won't confront her and has betrayed her by marrying someone else that makes her kill herself.

Overall I think that the largest difference between the two versions of the story is the relationship between Ciocio-san and her child and her relationship with the American husband. The ranking of each relationship differs between the versions. In the animated version Ciocio-san's relationship is slightly more precious than her relationship with the American. It was her child being torn away that killed her. In the opera version the focus is very adamantly on Ciocio-san's relationship with the American and all her expectations of what her life would be like. The child is really an afterthought and used more as a bargaining chip for Ciocio-san to see the American again.